Ambient networks are considered as modern mobile networks that involve heterogeneous mobile devices, networks and users. The distinguishing feature of ambient networks is that they allow for dynamic composition of different networks, systems and services. Such composition enhances the capability of networks and also provides services that suit the users and the network environments. The research community has actively investigated the underlying challenges pertaining to these networks, as they fundamentally differ from the classical problems due to their inherent constraints. The theme of this special issue is to present latest research on ambient networks, systems and services. This special issue includes a selection of papers from an open call as well as selected papers from the International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT 2010) which was held in November 2010 in Paris, France and has attracted excellent scientific papers contributing to the state of the art in this research field. All the papers were subjected to a two rounds of rigorous review process. Based on the reviews, a total of seven papers were selected for publication. These papers present interesting research work on ambient networks and intelligence, wireless and sensor networks, and mobile services and applications. Self-organisation is an important research issue in ambient networks. Habib and Marimuthu exploit molecular biology assembly techniques in the self-organisation of ambient networks. This approach analogizes the ambient network nodes as molecules in order to form clusters of such nodes in a self-organised manner. Clusters are formed by defining pair-wise relations between nodes such as the distance, incoming traffic and outgoing traffic. Depending on the type of relationship, nodes attract (or repulse) each other to (from) the cluster. The experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly optimises backbone traffic. The paper by Buchmayr and Kurschl surveys the existing projects and developments in the situationaware ambient intelligence. The aim of the survey is to establish the knowledge and understanding of the large number of prototypes and working systems that have been developed for situation-aware ambient intelligence. Based on the survey, this paper designs a reference architecture and also develops an evaluation criteria for situation awareness in ambient systems. The survey also identifies open research issues for new research projects in the area of ambient intelligence. Becerra and Kremer propose a multi-agent approach in order to design an ambient intelligent environment. This work considers an interesting application area wherein agents are used to represent and control various inhabitants such as humans, animals, plants and objects such that they can sacrifice their own needs for the benefit of the whole environment. For instance ‘‘a dark room could prevent the plants from growing; a cold room would make the leather sofa uncomfortable to sit on when the man returns; E. Shakshuki (&) Jodrey School of Computer Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, Canada e-mail: elhadi.shakshuki@acadiau.ca