Synchronizing clocks in an asynchronous distributed system
US8073976B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 25, 2009 |
| Grant date | Dec 6, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 3, 2030 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04J3/0667
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
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.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.