On Pseudo-synchronizing Clocks in Distributed Applications

Many distributed applications demand the underlying distributed systems to accommodate their needs. Matching requirements of distributed applications compels the prompt identification of momentary characteristics of an underlying distributed system. Thus, a method is needed to promptly derive a momentary state of a distributed system by identifying a set of events occurred across hosts and occurred in the neighborhood of the given time moment. We propose a novel method of pseudo-synchronizing local clocks to a common reference clock so to aid the derivation of the set of distributed events occurred at a given time moment. Pseudo-synchronizing local clocks to a common reference clock is discover the shifts between local clocks and the reference clock by making use of the ”happened-before” relations. Then, local clocks can be pseudo-synchronized to the reference clock by compensating the shifts discovered. However, compensating the shifts to local clocks might affect the original order of occurrence of events. In order to maintain the original order, further adjustments to the shifts are needed before compensating the shifts to local clocks. Jun Liu Computer Science Department University of North Dakota Grand Forks, ND 58202 [email protected]