Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRS) are becoming a hot topic for Communications [1]. Many people are working on them to apply them in different fields, such as V2X scenarios or secure wireless communications [2].
IRSs are being proven as a promising technology for the so-called Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) proposed for 6G [3]. Some authors have already studied the use of those devices for indoor and outdoor scenarios [4].
The student has to do a critical review of the literature and find the advantages and the back draws of the topic, trying to give an answer to the question given in the title. The student is also encouraged to find other useful literature by himself/herself.
[1] Ö. Özdogan, E. Björnson and E. G. Larsson, "Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces: Physics, Propagation, and Pathloss Modeling," in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 581-585, May 2020, doi: 10.1109/LWC.2019.2960779.
[2] M. Cui, G. Zhang and R. Zhang, "Secure Wireless Communication via Intelligent Reflecting Surface," in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 1410-1414, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1109/LWC.2019.2919685.
[3] A. Liu et al., "A Survey on Fundamental Limits of Integrated Sensing and Communication," in IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 994-1034, Secondquarter 2022, doi: 10.1109/COMST.2022.3149272.
[4] J. He, H. Wymeersch, T. Sanguanpuak, O. Silven and M. Juntti, "Adaptive Beamforming Design for mmWave RIS-Aided Joint Localization and Communication," 2020 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference Workshops (WCNCW), 2020, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/WCNCW48565.2020.9124848.
