The overall spectral efficiency in optical transmission systems needs to be enhanced by employment of advanced modulation, multiplexing, and coding schemes, as well as the advanced detection techniques. In parallel, novel networking concepts with the griddles and elastic bandwidth allocation are needed to increase the network dynamics and flexibility. In this paper we discuss multidimensional modulation, multiplexing, and coding schemes, which are enablers not only of the information capacity increase, but also for the next generation elastic high-speed optical networking and outline possible future directions and application scenario in different networking segments.