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Practical uses of synchronized clocks in distributed systems

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Summary

Synchronized clocks are interesting because they can be used to improve performance of a distributed system by reducing communications. Since they have only recently become a reality in distributed systems, their use in distributed algorithms has received relatively little attention. This paper discusses a number of distributed algorithms that make use of synchronized clocks and analyzes how clocks are used in these algorithms

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Barbara Liskov

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  1. Barbara Liskov
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Barbara Liskov received her B.A. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley and her M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University. She is currently a member of the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she is NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering. Her research and teaching interests include programming languages, programming methodology, distributed computing, and parallel computing. Her work on data abstraction led to the development of the CLU programming language and to a programming methodology based on data abstraction and specifications. This work is described in her book “Abstraction and Specification in Program Development”. Her subsequent research in distributed computing resulted in the Argus programming language, which supports robust distributed programs that survive hardware failures, and the Mercury communications mechanism, which supports efficient communication in a heterogeneous distributed system. At present Prof. Liskov is continuing her work in distributed computing, including development of replication algorithms for implementing highly-available systems. She is working on Harp, a replicated Unix file system for use via NFS, and on the design and implementation of Thor, a highly available object repository for use in a heterogeneous distributed environment. She is a member of ACM, IEEE, the National Academy of Engineering, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This research was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense, monitored by the Office of Naval Research under contract N00014-89-J-1988, and in part by the National Science Foundation under grant CCR-8822158.

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Liskov, B. Practical uses of synchronized clocks in distributed systems. Distrib Comput 6, 211–219 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02242709

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02242709

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