Chapter 5

Clock Synchronization

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 What is synchronization

 Synchronize means two items are adjusted to do the same

thing. For example: when you synchronize two watches, you
adjust them so they show the same exact time.
 When you synchronize something on a computer, it means
data from one computer is transferred to another computer or
device, and vice versa. Then both computers or devices have
the same exact data for what ever program you are running.

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 Clock Synchronization
 in centralized systems, time can be unambiguously, decided by a system
call.
 E.g., process A at time t1 gets the time, say tA, and process b at time t2,
where t1 < t2, gets the time say tB , then tA is always less than tB
 achieving agreement on time in distributed systems is difficult.

when each machine has its own clock, an event that occurred after another
event may nevertheless be assigned an earlier time
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1. Physical Clocks
 if all computers initially start at the same time, they will get out of synch after some
time due to crystals in different computers running at different frequencies, a
phenomenon called clock skew.
 how is time actually measured?
 Earlier astronomically; based on the amount of time it takes the earth to rotate the
sun; 1 solar second = 1/86400th of a solar day (24*3600 = 86400)
 it was later discovered that the period of the earth’s rotation is not constant; the earth
is slowing down due to tidal friction and atmospheric drag.
 geologists believe that 300 million years ago there were about 400 days per year; the
length of the year is not affected, only the days have become longer
 astronomical timekeeping was later replaced by counting the transitions of the
cesium 133 atom and led to what is known as TAI - International Atomic Time
(Temps Atomique International (French for International Atomic Time).

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 TAI was also found to have a problem; 86,400 TAI seconds are behind a
solar day by 3 msec, as a result of the day getting longer everyday
 UTC (Universal Coordinated Time) was introduced by having leap
seconds .
 UTC replaced the astronomical GMT(Greenwitch Mean Time)
 in some countries, UTC is broadcasted on shortwave radio and satellites
(as a short pulse at the start of each UTC second) for those who need
precise time.

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 Clock Synchronization Algorithms
Consider the following two situations:
 one machine has a receiver of UTC time, then how do we synchronize
all other machines to it
 no machine has a receiver, each machine keeps track of its own time,
then how to synchronize them
For such and other situations many algorithms have been proposed
 a model for all algorithms
 Each machine has a timer that ticks H times per second or causes an
interrupt; the interrupt handler adds 1 to the software clock and let the
value of the clock that is obtained so be C.
 when the UTC time is t, the value of the clock on machine p is Cp(t); if
everything is perfect, Cp(t) = t or dC/dt = 1
But in practice there will be errors; either it ticks faster or slower. if p is a
constant such that
1- p ≤ dC/dt ≤ 1+ p, then the timer is said to be working within its
specification and p is set by the manufacturer and is called the Maximum
Drift Rate.
Maximum drift rate specifies to what extent a clock's skew is allwoed to
fluctuate. Slow, Perfect and fast as shown the following figure:
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the relation between clock time and UTC when clocks tick at different rates

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 Cristian’s Algorithm
 suitable when one machine has a UTC receiver; let us call this machine a time
server.

getting the current time from a time server

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  first approximation: let the client set its clock to CUTC
 problems:
 message propagation time
 solution: try to estimate it as (T1-T0)/2 and add this to CUTC
 time must never run backward
 solution: introduce change gradually; if a timer is set to generate
100 interrupts per second, it means 10 msec must be added to the
time; then make it say 9 (to slow it down) or 11 msec (to advance it
gradually)

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 The Berkley Algorithm
• In Cristian’s algorithm, the time server is passive; only other
machines ask it periodically.
• In Berkley UNIX, a time daemon asks every machine from time
to time to ask the time
• it then calculates the average and sends messages to all
machines so that they will adjust their clocks accordingly
• suitable when no machine has a UTC receiver
• the time daemon’s time must be set periodically manually

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 a) the time daemon asks all the other machines for their clock values
b) the machines answer how far ahead or behind the time daemon they are
c) the time daemon tells everyone how to adjust their clock
 there are also other algorithms
 Aaveraging algorithms - decentralized - such as Network Time Protocol in the Internet
when there are multiple external time sources for extreme accuracy

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 2. Logical Clocks
 For some applications, it is sufficient if all machines agree on the same time,
rather than with the real time; we need internal consistency of the clocks rather
than being close to the real time
 hence the concept of logical clocks
• what matters is the order in which events occur
A. Lamport Timestamps
 Lamport defined a relation called happens before.
 a  b read as “a happens before b”; means all processes agree that first event a
occurs, then event b occurs
 this relation can be observed in two situations
 if a and b are events in the same process, and a occurs before b, then a  b is
true
 if a is the event of a message being sent by one process, and b is the event of
the message being received by another process, then a  b is also true
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 happens before is a transitive relation
 if a  b and b  c, then a  c
 if two events, x and y, happen in different processes that do not
exchange messages, then both x  y and y  x are not true; these
events are said to be concurrent; it means that nothing can be said
about the order of these events
 for every event a, we can assign a time value C(a) on which all
processes agree; if a  b, then C(a) < C(b)

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 Lamport’s proposed algorithm for assigning times for processes
 consider three processes each running on a different machine, each
with its own clock
 the solution follows the happens before relation; each message carries
the sending time; if the receiver’s clock shows a value prior to the time
the message was sent, the receiver fast forwards its clock to be one
more than the sending time

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a) three processes, each with its own clock; the clocks run at different rates
b) Lamport's algorithm corrects the clocks

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 additional requirements
 no two events must occur at exactly the same time; if so attach the
number of the process; e,g., if events happen in processes 1 and 2 at
time 40, then we have 40.1 and 40.2
 with these requirements, assigning time to all events in a distributed
system is subject to the following conditions
1. if a  b in the same process, then C(a) < C(b)
2. if a and b represent the sending and receiving of a message,
respectively, then C(a) < C(b)
3. for all distinctive events a and b, C(a)  C(b)

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 Example: Totally-Ordered Multicasting
 assume a bank database replicated across several cities for performance; a query
is always forwarded to the nearest copy
 let us have a customer with $1000 in her account, she is in city A and wants to
add $100 to her account (update 1)
 a bank employee in city B initiates an update of increasing accounts by 1 percent
interest (update 2)
 both must be carried out at both copies of the database
 due to communication delays, if the updates are done in different order, the
database will be inconsistent (city A = $1111, city B = $1110)

updating a replicated database and leaving it in an inconsistent state

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 situations like these require a Totally-Ordered Multicast, i.e., all messages are
delivered in the same order to each receiver
 Lamport timestamps can be used to implement totally-ordered multicasts.
B. Vector Timestamps
with Lamport timestamps a  b does not necessarily mean a happens before
b.
Read for more

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 3. Mutual Exclusion
 when a process has to read or update shared data (quite often to use a
shared resource such as a printer, a file, etc.),it first enters a critical
region to achieve mutual exclusion
 in single processor systems, critical regions are protected using
semaphores, monitors.
 how are critical regions and mutual exclusion implemented in distributed
systems?
 three algorithms: centralized, distributed, and token ring
 A Centralized Algorithm
 a coordinator is appointed and is in charge of granting permissions.
 three messages are required: request, grant, release

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a) process 1 asks the coordinator for permission to enter a critical region; permission
is granted
b) process 2 then asks permission to enter the same critical region; the coordinator
does not reply (could also send a no message; is implementation dependent), but
queues process 2; process 2 is blocked
c) when process 1 exits the critical region, it tells the coordinator, which then replies
to 2

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  the algorithm
 guarantees mutual exclusion
 is fair - first come first served
 no starvation
 easy to implement; requires only three messages: request, grant, release
 shortcoming: a failure of the coordinator crashes the system (specially if processes block
after sending a request); it also becomes a performance bottleneck
 A Distributed Algorithm
 assume that there is a total ordering of all events in the system, such as using Lamport
timestamps
 when a process wants to enter a critical region it builds a message (containing name of the
critical region, its process number, current time) and sends it to everyone including itself.
 the sending of a message is assumed to be reliable; i.e., every message is acknowledged

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 when a process receives a request message
1. if the receiver is not in a critical region and does want to enter it, it
sends back an OK message to the sender
2. if the receiver is already in the critical region, it does not reply;
instead it queues the request
3. if the receiver wants to enter the critical region but has not yet done
so, it compares the timestamp of the message it sent with the
incoming one; the lowest wins; if the incoming message is lower, it
sends an OK message; otherwise it queues the incoming message and
does not do anything
 when the sender gets a reply from all processes, it may enter into the
critical region
 when it finishes it sends an OK message to all processes in its queue
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 is it possible that two processes can enter into the critical
region at the same time if they initiate a message at the same
time? NO
a) two processes (0 and 2) want to enter the same critical
region at the same moment
b) process 0 has the lowest timestamp, so it wins
c) when process 0 is done, it sends an OK message, so process
2 can now enter into its critical region

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 A Token Ring Algorithm
 assume a bus network (e.g., Ethernet); no physical ordering of
processes required but a logical ring is constructed by software.

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 4. Election Algorithms
 there are situations where one process must act as a coordinator, initiator,
or perform some special task.
 assume that
 each process has a unique number
 every process knows the process number of every other process, but
not the state of each process (which ones are currently running and
which ones are down)
 election algorithms attempt to locate the process with the highest process
number.
 two algorithms: the Bully algorithm and the Ring algorithm

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 The Bully Algorithm (the biggest person wins)
 when a process (say P4) notices that the coordinator is no longer
responding to requests, it initiates an election as follows
1.P4 sends an ELECTION message to all processes with higher
numbers (P5, P6, P7)
 if a process gets an ELECTION message from one of its lower-
numbered colleagues, it sends an OK message to the sender and
holds an election
2.if no one responds, P4 wins the election and becomes a coordinator
3.if one of the higher-ups answers, this new process takes over

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a) Process 4 holds an election
b) Process 5 and 6 respond, telling 4 to stop
c) Now 5 and 6 each hold an election

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 d) Process 6 tells 5 to stop
e) Process 6 wins and tells everyone
 the last one will send a message to all processes telling them that it is a boss
 if a process that was previously down comes back, it holds an election
**Read about Ring algorithm.
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Thank you!!!