Elderly people face a range of difficulties that come with increased age, such as loss of vision, mobility, and hearing. Wireless communications and mobile computing technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices and wireless sensor networks, provide solutions to these problems by increasing the ability to monitor, diagnose, and treat or assist people with these difficulties. For example, edge computing is able to run software stacks such as virtualization or machine learning inference to help simulate possible risks in the home. This technology allows elderly people to live in ambient assisted living (AAL) situations. Elderly people living in rural areas are especially vulnerable due to the lack of resources in their areas and the length of time it can take to get human assistance to them. An additional problem in rural areas is the lack of consistent connectivity, and researchers therefore need to develop innovative, wireless communication solutions (e.g., combining mobile data plans with solutions such as LoRa or SigFox) that provide seamless integration. This will allow for faster monitoring and diagnoses of problems faced by elderly people and increase their quality and length of life by providing quicker communication solutions.

There are currently many mobile computing devices designed to assist the elderly, mainly battery-based wearable or portable devices. There is a wide variability in the quality and functionality of these devices; for example, some may require high security levels to ensure user privacy, others may require network (online-offline) usage, while others utilize low footprint or battery-efficient computing and communication solutions. The increasing number of devices that utilize IoT with high storage and processing capabilities could enhance the provision of wireless communications to elderly people. Unfortunately, this does not necessarily help elderly people in rural living situations as they may require a stable connection that is not always possible in these areas, and relying on the Cloud may hinder people living in these environments. However, IoT can contribute to helping elderly people in many ways, such as reducing hospital visitation requirements through the utilization of smart Health (s-Health) systems to detect problems and provide diagnoses.

This Special Issue welcomes original research and review articles on all areas of wireless communications and mobile computing technology for AAL, particularly contributions that concern the diagnoses, assistance, and monitoring of elderly people, especially those living in rural areas that do not have consistent internet access.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• New AAL research initiatives focused on communications and mobile/edge computing including lifelogging (monitoring, management, storing, processing, or routing using mobile phones, wearable devices, etc.) for use by (or for) elderly people
• Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) for different contexts (BAN, PAN, LAN, and WAN) to enhance AAL in remote/rural areas
• Interoperability among edge/mobile devices in distributed rural scenarios, especially issues with devices used by elderly people
• Interaction and communication with surrounding IoT devices for AAL, including seamless integration solutions (e.g., zero-configuration connectivity, UPnP, URC)
• Security and privacy issues for s-Health edge/mobile computing and communications devices when used by elderly people