• Physics of light propagation in optical fibres
• Optical fibre design, fabrication and characterization
• Optical fibres for improved transmission performance
• Fibres for new wavelength ranges
• Fibre amplifiers
• Multicore and multimode fibres
• Microstructured fibres
• Highly nonlinear fibres and their applications
• Fibres for fibre lasers, sensing applications and devices
• Fibre installation, connectors, splicing and reliability
• Fibres for improved energy efficiency

• Novel material platforms and structured materials
• Design, fabrication and characterisation of novel devices and functionality
• Modulators, Detectors and sources, directly modulated lasers and VCSELs
• Hybrid III-V/Group IV materials and devices for silicon photonics
• Nanophotonic devices
• Optoelectronic devices
• Nonlinear waveguides
• Ultrafast devices and technologies
• Optical switching devices

• Large-scale photonic integrated circuits
• Packaging of devices, testing of performance and reliability
• Co-packaged optical and electronic ICs (2D, 2.5D and 3D)
• System-on-a-chip (SoC) and on-chip networks
• Advanced analogue and digital electronic/optical co-integrated circuits
• Reconfigurable photonic integrated circuits
• Photonic integrated circuits for neuromorphic applications and artificial intelligence
• Integrated frequency combs
• Optical processors, neuromorphic and reservoir computing

• Algorithms for DSP in optical transmission systems
• Modelling and design of DSP
• Experimental demonstration of DSP
• Design, implementation and implications of reduced complexity DSP algorithms
• Comparison of machine learning techniques with conventional DSP
• Real-time DSP implementations for optical communications
• Analogue electrical and optical signal processing for optical communications and sensing
• DSP algorithms for sensing in optical transmission systems e.g. fibre, LiDAR, or FSO
• Novel error correction coding
• Novel constellation shaping approaches
• Implementation complexity analysis of DSP algorithms and computational effort
• Analogue-based and digital-based machine-learning techniques for optical communication

• Lab/field demonstrations of optical transmission links deploying novel fibres, devices, subsystems and multiplexing techniques
• Link system demonstrations using novel signal modulation techniques, signal processing and subsystems
• Transmission enhancements by analogue and nonlinear signal processing subsystems
• Multiplexing and demultiplexing subsystems for improved transmission
• Demonstration of spatially multiplexed transmission links
• Submarine links and cable deployment
• Novel transmission system modelling methods
• Capacity, reach, flexibility limits of optical transmission systems
• System level implications of physical impairments
• Impairment mitigation techniques
• Information theory for optical communications
• Short reach transmission (excluding switching and PON)

• Core, metro and transport optical network architectures
• Optical switching and routing architectures
• Submarine optical networks
• Satellite optical networks
• Optical network resilience and security
• Optical network deployments and field trials
• Inter data centre interconnection architectures
• Physical layer performance and technology integration in optical networks
• Multi-layer and multi-technology optical networks
• Planning and scaling of hybrid fibre/free space optical networks
• Performance monitoring techniques in optical networks

• Fibre-to-the-X and optical access networks
• Passive optical networks
• In-building optical networks
• Intra-datacentre interconnect networks
• Optical networks for high performance computing
• Backhaul, midhaul and fronthaul networks for mobile networks
• Highly parallel network and interconnect demonstrations
• Photonic-driven architectures for cloud and low latency services
• Optical switching and routing in short-reach networks

• Fibre-based optical sensing (e.g., DAS, OTDR)
• Joint communication and sensing
• Microwave photonics subsystems
• Millimetre-wave and THz photonics signal generation/detection
• Demonstration of optics-based THz wireless subsystems
• Demonstration of analogue radio-over-fibre systems for 5G/6G and beyond
• Telecom network field-trials on optical fibre sensing
• Integration and applications of optical sensing in telecom networks

• Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial FSO communications
• Free-space optical sensing (e.g., LiDAR, OCT)
• Acquisition, Pointing, and Tracking (APT) systems
• Underwater and ship-to-ship/shore FSO communication
• LiFi communication systems and networks
• FSO intra-data center links
• Hybrid RF-FSO communication and Radio over FSO
• Integrated FSO communication and APT systems
• Atmospheric turbulence modelling, measurements and mitigation
• Lab and field trials using all-FSO or hybrid RF-FSO technologies
• FSO networking, control/management, system architecture and tradeoffs Integration of FSO and LiFi with back- and fronthaul over transmission media (e.g. POF, SMF, PLC)
• New PICs, optoelectronic subsystems and drivers for FSO and LiFi
• Enabling technologies and technics (diversity, modulation formats,…) for FSO and optical wireless transmissions

• Control and management of multi-layer and multi-domain optical networks (access, transport, DCI and DCN)
• Programmability and telemetry of open and disaggregated packet-optical networks
• Cloud-native and containerized control architectures 
• Digital twin and emulation frameworks for optical network control
• AI/ML-driven solutions for autonomous network management 
• Field trials, experimental validations showcasing control integration with optical hardware 
• Energy-efficiency, reliability, survivability, disaster recovery and security control mechanisms
• Integration of optical network control with edge and cloud ecosystems

• Quantum optics and quantum communication
• Quantum devices to enable quantum networks and internetworking
• Quantum nanophotonics
• Quantum interfaces
• Coherent state transfer between the optical and the microwave domain
• Quantum memories for photons
• Quantum network architectures, switching, routing and protocols
• Quantum light sources and detectors
• Theory of quantum communication systems
• Use case and demonstration of quantum communication systems
• Quantum cryptography lab/field demonstration
• Quantum computing interconnect
• Quantum repeaters
• Quantum Internet
• Co-existence of quantum and classical networks
• Physical layer security for optical links
• Comparison of classical and quantum physical layer security
• Optical quantum computing including quantum neuromorphic and neural networks

• Automated device alignment, characterization, and measurement setups for advanced transmission experiments, including novel optical fibres
• Transmission and switching systems across optical fibre, free-space, and microwave domains
• High-speed interconnects and processing systems for data centers and HPC
• Integrated communications and sensing across physical, system, and network layers
• Optical access and converged networks with metro transport, wireless integration, and MEC
• Novel networking architectures for low-latency and time-sensitive applications
• Programmable and autonomous networks with SDN, slicing, orchestration, and telemetry-based management, including hierarchical packet/optical control architectures and pluggable network elements
• Digital twin frameworks for modeling, optimization, and control of optical networks and subsystems
• AI/ML for optical Networks, Systems, and Subsystems
• Quantum networking, including entanglement, advanced QKD applications, quantum/classical interaction, and next-generation protocols

This CLEO® special session welcomes contributions from all fields of optics and photonics primarily focusing on underlying physical phenomena and emerging concepts. This includes but is not limited to:

• Subwavelength gratings (SWGs) and metamaterial waveguides
• Nonlinear optical phenomena 
• Light-matter interaction at the nanoscale
• Foundations for next-generation silicon photonics
• Topological photonics
• Non-classical and structured light
• Integration of low-dimensional materials
• Non-reciprocal photonic structures 
• Enabling concepts for advanced optical combs, beamforming transceivers, on-chip interferometers and spectrometers
• Ultra-low loss photonic structures for future on-chip quantum applications
• Quantum photonic sensing and metrology