LiFi Through Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces: A New Frontier for 6G?

Light fidelity (LiFi), which is based on visible light communications (VLC), is celebrated as a cutting-edge technological paradigm that is envisioned to be an indispensable part of 6G systems. Nonetheless, LiFi performance is subject to efficiently overcoming the line-of-sight blockage, whose adverse effect on wireless reception reliability becomes even more pronounced in highly dynamic environments, such as vehicular application scenarios. Meanwhile, intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) emerged recently as a revolutionary concept that transfers the physical propagation environment into a fully controllable and customisable space in a low-cost low-power fashion. We anticipate that the integration of IRS in LiFi-enabled networks will not only support blockage mitigation but will also provision complex interactions among network entities, and is hence manifested as a promising platform that enables a plethora of technological trends and new applications. In this article, for the first time in the open literature, we set the scene for a holistic overview of IRS-assisted LiFi systems. Specifically, we explore the underlying IRS architecture from the perspective of physics and present a forward-looking vision that outlines potential operational elements supported by IRS-enabled transceivers and IRS-enabled environments. Finally, we highlight major associated challenges and offer a look ahead toward promising future directions.