Optical wireless communication, as a high-speed, high bandwidth, and high security communication technology, has received widespread attention. However, noise, as an important limiting factor of system performance, can cause system signal distortion and signal-to-noise ratio to decrease, thereby affecting communication quality. Therefore, in order to reduce the impact of noise on signals and design and adjust communication systems more effectively, it is necessary to understand and simulate the behavior of noise, and noise models are an important tool for studying noise behavior. This article systematically studies the noise and noise models in optical wireless communication systems. Firstly, the article analyzes each type of typical noise introduced in optical wireless communication systems from the perspectives of signal source, channel, and destination. Then, the research progress on corresponding noise and its noise models at home and abroad was summarized, and the mechanism of noise generation was analyzed, and corresponding noise models were provided. In addition, the characteristics and limitations of relevant models were summarized. Finally, key suppression technologies for various types of noise were summarized, and further research directions in this field were discussed, which can provide theoretical support and inspiration for the development of optical wireless communication technology and system design and optimization in this field.