This monograph presents state-of-the-art techniques for building flexible, predictable soft real-time systems, that, in comparison to hard real-time systems, optimize resources and reduce costs. It provides background and basic terminology of soft real-time computing, and goes on to discuss overload management techniques, temporal protection, the execution of multi-thread applications, synchronization protocols, reclaiming techniques and quality of service issues. Accompanied by numerous illustrations and comprehensive references, this text is an invaluable reference for researchers, students and system developers alike.

Hard real-time systems are very predictable, but not sufficiently flexible to adapt to dynamic situations. They are built under pessimistic assumptions to cope with worst-case scenarios, so they often waste resources. Soft real-time systems are built to reduce resource consumption, tolerate overloads and adapt to system changes. They are also more suited to novel applications of real-time technology, such as multimedia systems, monitoring apparatuses, telecommunication networks, mobile robotics, virtual reality, and interactive computer games. This unique monograph provides concrete methods for building flexible, predictable soft real-time systems, in order to optimize resources and reduce costs. It is an invaluable reference for developers, as well as researchers and students in Computer Science.