Synchronizing clocks in an asynchronous distributed system

Details Synchronizing clocks in an asynchronous distributed system Synchronizing clocks in an asynchronous distributed system

2009-03-25

2011-12-06

Tang, Karen (Department: 2447)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Multicomputer synchronizing

C709S223000, C709S224000

Reexamination Certificate

active

08073976

ABSTRACT:
The present invention extends to methods, systems, and computer program products for synchronizing clocks in an asynchronous distributed system. Embodiments of the invention facilitate creation of a trustable and practical common time (time of day) reference across a set of peer nodes (observers), such as, for example, members within a common asynchronous (distributed) system. A class of pseudo synchronous system can be created via tracking and accumulating worst case relativistic time skews amongst pairs of nodes (observers), without reference to a common master. As such, cooperating nodes can essentially guarantee a lower bound on the time-of-day that one node will observe, given an observation on another node. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention can be applied to provide a consistent (essentially safe) view of the worst case (i.e., greatest variance in) current time across such an asynchronous system—without a common external time-of-day clock entity being used.

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