We address packet optical communications and networking technologies, edge and cloud computing infrastructure for virtual functions and applications, and network and service management to provide high-speed, cost-effective, energy-efficient, secured, and reliable connectivity, network and slice services for multi-tenancy. It spans from the access to the metro and long-haul network segments, as well as inter and intra data center communication.

To address sustainable high-capacity scaling and support network dynamicity, the adoption of spectrally and spatially multiplexed transmission systems with suitable photonic technologies and adaptive transceivers becomes crucial. Moreover, the emergence of quantum technologies and the prospect of quantum computing (which represents a threat for future network security) require to consider reliable security mechanisms and appropriate solutions to be adopted in the network infrastructure.
Packet and optical technologies will be further integrated to provide a converged transport network with a more granular and large-scale management of flows with dedicated QoS in support of Mobile (B5G/6G), IoT/V2X, and fixed (enterprise, residential) services. Finally, the need for extending the cloud towards the network edge will require the deployment of edge computing integrated with the packet optical networks, providing an edge cloud continuum of network resources.

Network and service management will face radical architectural transformations to provide autonomous, reliable, secured, and trustworthy services. At the network level, software defined network control and telemetry will enable full programmability and real-time streaming for autonomous connectivity and transport slice management. At the service level, network function virtualization service orchestration with intent-based policies and software defined security will deploy smart and secured virtual network services and network slices.

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