The aim of the special sessions is to provide a complementary flavor and novel perspectives to the regular sessions and can take the form of (1) Panels discussing visionary and/or controversial issues, (2) Hot-Topic Sessions, dealing with the introduction and discussion of new R&D problems, and (3) Tutorial Sessions, addressing trends in the technical domains that are of interest to the conference participants. Topics that introduce new directions and paradigms relevant to the NOCS community are highly encouraged.