A Review on RIS-Assisted RoFSO Systems Over Málaga-M Turbulence for Smart City Applications

Radio-over-Free-Space Optics (RoFSO) systems have emerged as a promising solution to address the growing demand for high-capacity and flexible wireless communications in smart city environments. RIS-assisted RoFSO systems offer a compelling solution to the communication challenges inherent in smart city applications. By leveraging the reflective and reconfigurable capabilities of intelligent surfaces, these systems can overcome the traditional LOS limitations and significantly mitigate the adverse effects of atmospheric turbulence, as accurately modeled by the Málaga-M distribution. The demonstrated improvements in outage probability, channel capacity, and bit error rate highlight their potential to provide reliable, high-speed, and flexible wireless connectivity in dense urban environments. However, the performance of RoFSO links is significantly affected by atmospheric turbulence. The Málaga-M distribution has gained prominence as a comprehensive model to capture a wide range of turbulence conditions. Recent advancements in Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) offer a new dimension to mitigating the limitations of FSO channels. This paper provides a comprehensive literature review on the integration of RIS with RoFSO systems over Málaga-M fading, focusing on their applicability in smart city deployments.