Our modern information society provides us with a tremendous amount of information. Several issues have surfaced due to the complexity inherent in the handling of the information systems. One of the most important issues is that of providing an architecture and methodology that provide for the development and maintenance of complex, distributed information systems. As the information flow and quantity hinders us from having qualitative information when needed, the architecture must address the reach, richness and value of the information. Network-centric warfare is a problem domain that has been initiated to meet the power of information. To be able to support such continouos sustainability, a robust network infrastructure is critical. A systemic perspective on network-centric environments as well as a technical perspective on network-centric environment shows that, although promising, contemporary implementations having a service-oriented architecture lack support for physical scalability and a cognitive decoupling that would provide for multiple users acting on the same environment. Consequently, a service-oriented layered architecture for communicating entities is presented where these issues are addressed. For verification, a demonstrator is developed upon a service-oriented layered architecture for communicating based on a network-centric warfare scenario.