Maintaining the time in a distributed system

ABSTRACT

To a client of a loosely-coupled distributed system, one of the simplest services is a time service. Usually the client simply requests the time from any subset of the time servers making up the service, and uses the first reply. Issues that need to be considered in other services, such as connection establishment or client authentication, need not be considered in a time service. The simplicity of this instruction, however, misrepresents the complexity of implementing such a service.

REFERENCES

• 1: David R. Boggs, John F. Shoch, Edward A. Taft and Richard M. Metcalfe. Pup: an internetwork architecture. IEEE Trans. on Comm. COM-22, 5 (April 1980), 612-624
• 2: C. Ellingston and R. J. Kulpinski Dissemination of system-time. IEEE. Trans. Comm. Com-23, 5 (May 1973), 605-624. of the ACM 27, 7 (July 1978),| 558-565.
• 3: Leslie Lamport, Time, clocks, and the ordering of events in a distributed system, Communications of the ACM, v.21 n.7, p.558-565, July 1978 [doi>10.1145/359545.359563]
• 4: Leslie Lamport and P.M Melliar-Smith. Synchronizing clocks in the presence of faults. SRI International CSL (Lamport Opus 60), March 1982.
• 5: Keith Marzullo Loosely-Coupled Distributed Services: A Distributed Time Service. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University Computer Systems Laboratory, 1983 (draft)
• 6: David L. Mills Time synchronization in DCNET hosts. COMSAT Laboratories (IEN 173), February 25, 1981.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.4 INPUT/OUTPUT AND DATA COMMUNICATIONS
      B.4.3 Interconnections (subsystems)
          Subjects: Asynchronous/synchronous operation

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.2 COMPUTER-COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
      C.2.4 Distributed Systems

General Terms:
Algorithms