Service Oriented Architectures are increasingly being used to implement high-performance and real-time systems. Traditional systems operate in "human real-time," where human patience is the limit. Increasingly, however, systems operate in "computer real-time," where the only limits are imposed by the operational speed of the computers and networks.
For example, next-generation Air Traffic Management systems are being developed to accommodate the huge increase in air traffic and link the operational capabilities of agencies such as the Federal Aviation Authority, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). These systems require higher information bandwidth (to track more aircraft or more complex "free-flight" trajectories) as well as much lower latencies or delays on the information (to detect flight abnormalities quickly). Similar demands are being made in healthcare, SCADA, network monitoring, energy distribution, transportation, and other critical infrastructure systems.
