Analysis Of Bounds On Hybrid Vector Clocks

This move is inwards collaboration amongst Sorrachai Yingchareonthawornchai as well as Sandeep Kulkarni at the Michigan State University as well as is currently nether submission.


Practice of distributed systems employs loosely synchronized clocks, generally using NTP. Unfortunately, perfect synchronization is unachievable due to messaging amongst uncertain latency, clock skew, as well as failures. These sync errors Pb to anomalies. For example, a mail trial at Branch1 may survive assigned a timestamp greater than the corresponding have trial at Branch2, because Branch1's clock is slightly ahead of Branch2's clock. This leads to /inconsistent acre snapshots/ because, at fourth dimension T=12:00, a coin transfer is recorded every bit received at Branch2, whereas it is non recorded every bit sent at Branch1.

Theory of distributed systems shrugs as well as doesn't fifty-fifty try. Theory abstracts away from the physical clock as well as uses logical clocks for ordering events. These are basically counters, every bit inwards Lamport's clocks as well as vector clocks. The causality human relationship captured past times these logical clocks is defined based on passing of information rather than passing of time. As such, it is non possible to query events inwards relation to physical time.

Recently, nosotros introduced a tertiary option, hybrid clocks. Hybrid clocks combine the best of logical as well as physical clocks as well as avoid their disadvantages. Hybrid clocks are loosely synchronized using NTP, yet they too supply provable comparing weather every bit inwards LC or VC.

Our hybrid clocks come upwardly inwards ii flavors: hybrid logical clocks (HLC) as well as hybrid vector clocks (HVC). HLC satisfy the logical clock comparing status as well as observe applications inwards multiversion distributed database systems (such every bit inwards CockroachDB) where it enables efficient querying of consistent snapshots for read transactions, as well as ensures that commits of write transactions practice non teach delayed despite the uncertainties inwards NTP clock synchronization. HVC satisfy the vector clock comparing condition: inwards contrast to HLC that tin supply a unmarried consistent snapshot for a given time, HVC supply all consistent snapshots for that given time. HVC observe applications inwards debugging as well as inwards causal delivery of messages.

The infinite requirement of VC is shown to survive of size n, the expose of nodes inwards the system, which is prohibitive. HVC reduces the overhead of causality tracking inwards VC past times using the fact that the clocks are reasonably synchronized inside epsilon. If j does non remove heed (directly or transitively) from k inside epsilon as well as then hvc.j[k] necessitate non survive explicitly maintained. We soundless infer that hvc.j[k] equals hvc.j[j]-epsilon, thank y'all to clock sync. So hvc.j exclusively maintains entries for nodes that talked to j inside concluding epsilon as well as provided a fresh timestamp higher than hvc.j[j]-epsilon. This way HVC tin potentially scale the VC benefits to many thousands of processes past times soundless maintaining modest HVC at each process.

HVC bounds

But how effective are HVC for reducing the size of VC? To address this question, nosotros developed an analytical model that uses 4 parameters, epsilon: doubtfulness of clock synchronization, delta: minimum message delay, alpha: message sending rate, as well as n: expose of nodes inwards the system. We role a model amongst random unicast message transmissions as well as derive the size of HVC inwards damage of a delay differential equation.

This differential equation captures the charge per unit of measurement of propogation of "redness". Red way the node maintains an entry for a node j. Initially exclusively j is reddish as well as all other nodes are green. If a reddish node communicates a message to a light-green node which is received inside epsilon, that node too becomes reddish (starts maintaining an entry for j inwards its hvc). A reddish node may plow dorsum to beingness light-green if it doesn't have a message that contains fresh information nearly j inwards the concluding epsilon.

Our model as well as simulations demo the HVC size is a sigmoid business office amongst honor to increasing epsilon: it has a dull commencement exactly grows exponentially later a critical stage transition. Before the stage transition threshold, HVC maintains duo entries per node, nevertheless when a threshold is crossed, a node non exclusively gets entries added to its clock from direct interaction exactly too indirect transfer from about other processes HVC, as well as this makes the HVC entries blow up. In other words, the redness goes viral later a threshold. We derive this threshold every bit (1/alpha + delta)* ln((2-√3)*(n-1)), for alpha*delta<1.


Our bounds are tight as well as nosotros observe that the size predicted past times our model is almost identical to the results obtained past times our simulation results.

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