Introduction to the JOCN Special Issue on Optimized and AI/ML Enabled Future Optical Networks

This special issue contains a collection of extended papers presented at the Future Optical Networks and Communications (FONC) Symposium in the IEEE Future Network World Forum (FNWF), 15–17 October 2024, Dubai, UAE, as well as papers from the open call. We present a brief introduction followed by an overview of the topics covered in the papers.