The accuracy of the clock synchronization achieved by TEMPO inBerkeley UNIX 4.3BSD

The authors discuss the upper and lower bounds on the accuracy of the time synchronization achieved by the algorithm implemented in TEMPO, the distributed service that synchronizes the clocks of the University of California, Berkeley, UNIX 4.3BSD systems. The accuracy is shown to be a function of the network transmission latency; it depends linearly upon the drift rate of the clocks and the interval between synchronizations. TEMPO keeps the clocks of the VAX computers in a local area network synchronized with an accuracy comparable to the resolution of single-machine clocks. Comparison with other clock synchronization algorithms shows that TEMPO, in an environment with no Byzantine faults, can achieve better synchronization at a lower cost     

A self-stabilizing algorithm for strong fairness

Self-stabilization is a novel technique to deal with faults in distributed systems. This paper presents a distributed self-stabilizing algorithm for implementing strong fairness in an arbitrary network. A desirable feature of this algorithm is that it can be used to enforce the strong fairness property on any distributed algorithm including self-stabilizing algorithms. In addition, the algorithm does not require any initialization and can withstand transient failures. At the end of the paper such issues as improving the time complexity of the proposed algorithm and the limitations on the efficiency of any implementation of strong fairness are discussed.     

Logical time: capturing causality in distributed systems

Causality is vital in distributed computations. Distributed systems can determine causality using logical clocks. Human beings use the concept of causality to plan, schedule, and execute an enterprise, or to determine a plan's feasibility. In daily life, we use global time to deduce causality from loosely synchronized clocks such as wrist watches and wall clocks. But in distributed computing systems, the rate of event occurrence is several magnitudes higher, and the event-execution time several magnitudes smaller. If the physical clocks in these systems are not synchronized precisely the causality relation between events cannot be captured accurately. However, distributed systems have no built-in physical time and can only approximate it. This article presents a general framework of a system of logical clocks in distributed systems and discusses three methods: scalar, vector and matrix, for implementing logical time in these systems     

基于RTEthernet改进的时钟同步算法

以太网其庞大的网络系统在复杂的环境中存在网络链路延迟,节点时钟的漂移,同步能力差等问题。通过研究RTEthernet协议的起源和工作原理,考虑到影响实时以太网时间同步精密度的时钟拜占庭故障、网络传输延迟和漂移率等三个因素,建立了符合RTEthernet协议的通信模型。对FTA时钟同步算法在故障下时钟同步精密度损失率提升较少的问题进行了研究,引入了滑动窗口技术,提出了容错滑动窗口（Fault-Tolerant Sliding Window, FTSW）算法。容错滑动窗口算法能进一步提高分布式系统在进行时钟同步是对故障节点的容错能力。最后,使用CANoe仿真工具对FTSW算法进行仿真验证, FTSW算法的容错性优于FTA时钟同步算法算法,且在系统（七个节点）中存在两个拜占庭故障的情况下,同步后的精密度损失率降低了7.1%。     

Dynamic FTSS in asynchronous systems: The case of unison

Distributed fault-tolerance can mask the effect of a limited number of permanent faults, while self-stabilization provides forward recovery after an arbitrary number of transient faults hit the system. FTSS (Fault-Tolerant Self-Stabilizing) protocols combine the best of both worlds since they tolerate simultaneously transient and (permanent) crash faults. To date, deterministic FTSS solutions either consider static (i.e. fixed point) tasks, or assume synchronous scheduling of the system components.In this paper, we present the first study of deterministic FTSS solutions for dynamic tasks in asynchronous systems, considering the unison problem as a benchmark. Unison can be seen as a local clock synchronization problem as neighbors must maintain digital clocks at most one time unit away from each other, and increment their own clock value infinitely often. We present several impossibility results for this difficult problem and propose an FTSS solution (when the problem is solvable) for the state model that exhibits optimal fault-containment.     

A self-stabilizing algorithm for bridge finding

Summary. A self-stabilizing algorithm is presented in this paper that finds the bridges of a connected undirected graph on a distributed or network model of computation after moves. The algorithm is resilient to transient faults and does not require initialization. In addition, a correctness proof of the algorithm is provided. The paper concludes with remarks on the time complexity of the algorithm. Received: July 1997 / Accepted: January 1999     

Diagnosis of transient faults in quantised systems

This paper concerns the diagnosis and identification of faults that occur in systems where signals can only be measured through a quantiser. A qualitative model is used that represents the discrete-event behaviour of the quantised system. Three different diagnostic algorithms are presented for determining the fault probabilities, the first concerning faults currently affecting the system and the second determining the probabilities that faults occurred at any time in the past. The third algorithm is based on the assumption that the faults occurred only during a time interval in the past. Due to this assumption, the algorithm is applicable for continuously running processes and for the online identification of transient faults. The approach is illustrated by an example of a manufacturing cell.     

A New and Improved Algorithm for Fault-Tolerant Clock Synchronization

Synchronous clocks are an essential requirement for a variety of distributed system applications. Many of these applications are safety-critical and require fault tolerance. In this paper, a new "Sliding Window" clock synchronization algorithm is presented. It offers two significant advantages. First, it can tolerate considerably higher percentages of faults than any known algorithm. In addition, it achieves clock synchronization tightness that is tighter than or as tight as that of other algorithms. A comprehensive simulation environment is used for an evaluation and comparison of the Sliding Window Algorithm with other clock synchronization algorithms. A quantitative evaluation using this environment outlines the achievable tightness under different conditions and shows that the Sliding Window Algorithm is capable of tolerating more than 50% of the nodes being faulty at any time as well as short fault bursts that affect all nodes. The evaluation also shows that our algorithm synchronizes up to 38% tighter than other algorithms. Finally, it is proven that the algorithm is able to guarantee synchronization in an n-node system even if the number of Byzantine faults is n/4.     

Logical time in distributed computing systems

The partial ordering of events as defined by their causal relationships, that is, the ability of one event to directly, or transitively, affect another is defined. Its generalized and practical implementations in terms of partially ordered logical clocks are described. Such clocks can provide a decentralized definition of time for distributed computing systems, which lack a common time base. In their full generality, partially ordered logical clocks may be impractically expensive for long-lived computations. Several possible optimizations, depending on the application environment in which the clocks will be used, are described. Some applications are summarized     

容错优先级混合式分配搜索算法

在实时系统中,由于任务未能及时产生正确结果将导致灾难性后果,容错对于实时系统的有效性及可靠性至关重要.基于最坏响应时间计算的可调度性分析,提出了一种容错优先级混合式分配搜索算法.这种算法通过允许替代任务既能运行在高优先级别上,又可运行在低优先级别上,有效地提高了系统的容错能力.通过实验测试,与目前所知的同类算法相比,在提高系统容错能力方面更为有效.     

Efficient Vector Time with Dynamic Process Creation and Termination

Many distributed algorithms require knowledge of the causal relationships between events. Examples include optimistic recovery protocols, distributed debugging systems, and causal distributed shared memory. Determining causal relationships can be difficult, however, because there is no global clock and local clocks cannot be perfectly synchronized. Vector time is a useful abstraction for capturing the causal relationships between events and, unlike Lamport's logical clocks, allows identification of concurrent events. Some drawbacks of vector time include transmission and logging overhead, since the size of a vector clock is linear in the number of processes. This paper presents a technique to reduce these overheads for applications that dynamically create and destroy processes and log event information with attached vector timestamps. The reduction in logging overhead comes at the expense of a more complicated timestamp comparison protocol and more sophisticated data structures for maintaining vector time. Distributed process recovery mechanisms and debugging systems that require “on-the-fly” causality information can benefit directly from the proposed technique     

A self-stabilizing algorithm to synchronize digital clocks in a distributed system

We have proposed a self-stabilizing algorithm to synchronize multiple digital clocks in a distributed system; whenever any of the clock values gets out of synchronization for any reason, the algorithm is automatically invoked and the system is brought back to a legitimate state in finite time.     

Building a global clock for observing computations in distributed memory parallel computers

A common time reference (i.e. global clock) is needed for observing the behavior of a distributed algorithm on a distributed computing system. The paper presents a pragmatic algorithm to build a global clock on any distributed system, which is optimal for homogeneous distributed memory parallel computers (DMPCs). In order to observe and sort concurrent events in common DMPCs, we need a global clock with a resolution finer than the message transfer time variance, which is better than what deterministic and fault-tolerant algorithms can obtain. Thus a statistical method is chosen as a building block to derive an original algorithm valid for any topology. Its main originality over related approaches is to cope with the problem of clock granularity in computing frequency offsets between local clocks to achieve a resolution comparable with the resolution of the physical clocks. This algorithm is particularly well suited for debugging distributed algorithms by means of trace recordings because after its acquisition step it does not induce message overhead: the perturbation induced on the execution remains as small as possible. It has been implemented on various DMPCs: Intel iPSC/2 hypercube and Paragon XP/S, Transputer-based networks and Sun networks, so we can provide some data about its behavior and performances on these DMPCs.     

Synchronized UTC for distributed real-time systems

We present a novel technique for establishing a highly accurate global time in fault-tolerant, large-scale distributed real-time systems. Unlike the usual clock synchronization approaches, our clock validation technique provides a precise system time that also relates to an external time standard like UTC with high accuracy. The underlying idea is to validate time information of external time sources like GPS-receivers against a global time maintained by the local clocks in the system. As an example, a promising interval-based clock validation algorithm ICV that exhibits excellent fault-tolerance properties is outlined and analyzed. It requires only a few high-accurate external time sources and provides each node with the actual accuracy of its clock.     

A Dynamic Self-Stabilizing Algorithm for Constructing a Transport Net

transport net corresponding to an undirected biconnected graph on a distributed or network model of computation. The algorithm is resilient to transient faults and does not require initialization. In addition, it is capable of handling topology changes in a transient manner. The paper includes a correctness proof of the algorithm. Finally, it concludes with some final remarks. Received November 26, 2001 Published online February 18, 2002     

基于故障暂态信息的配网电缆单相接地故障测距方法

介绍一种基于线路分布参数模型的、可利用故障暂态信息的配网电缆单相接地故障测距方法,应用于高精度电缆测距装置上,能对电缆故障快速精确定位,缩短恢复供电时间,有效弥补传统型电缆故障测距仪器的不足.     

Distributed Fault-Tolerant Consensus Tracking of Multi-Agent Systems Under Cyber-Attacks

This paper investigates the distributed fault-tolerant consensus tracking problem of nonlinear multi-agent systems with general incipient and abrupt time-varying actuator faults under cyber-attacks. First, a decentralized unknown input observer is established to estimate relative states and actuator faults. Second, the estimated and output neighboring information is combined with distributed fault-tolerant consensus tracking controllers. Criteria of reaching leader-following exponential consensus tracking of multi-agent systems under both connectivity-maintained and connectivity-mixed attacks are derived with average dwelling time, attack frequency, and attack activation rate technique, respectively. Simulation example verifies the effectiveness of the fault-tolerant consensus tracking algorithm.      

A nonpreemptive real-time scheduler with recovery from transient faults and its implementation

Real-time systems (RTS) are those whose correctness depends on satisfying the required functional as well as the required temporal properties. Due to the criticality of such systems, recovery from faults is an essential part of a RTS. In many systems, such as those supporting space applications, single event upsets (SEUs) are the prevalent type of faults; SEUs are transient faults and affect a single task at a time. We present a scheme to guarantee that the execution of real-time tasks can tolerate SEUs and intermittent faults assuming any queue-based scheduling technique. Three algorithms are presented to solve the problem of adding fault tolerance to a queue of real-time tasks by reserving sufficient slack in a schedule so that recovery can be carried out before the task deadline without compromising guarantees given to other tasks. The first algorithm is a dynamic programming optimal solution, the second is a linear-time heuristic for scheduling dynamic tasks, and the third algorithm comprises extensions to address queues with gaps between tasks (gaps are caused by precedence, resource, or timing constraints). We show through simulations that the heuristics closely approximate the optimal algorithm. Finally, we describe the implementation of the modified admission control algorithm, non-preemptive scheduler, and recovery mechanism in the FT-RT-Mach operating system.     

时钟同步算法的分析和比较

在许多分布式实时系统中.,要求整个分布式系统上的各个处理器时钟彼此同步,因而就要采取各种手段进行同步的处理。时钟同步算法保证了空间上分散的处理器时钟彼此同步。该文研究了当今基于软件实现的忍受故障的几种时钟同步算法:确定性、概率型和统计型同步算法并进行特性分析。本文提出了结构化分析的方法,有助于帮助分布式系统的设计者选择最合适的算法结构、系统硬件构成、故障模型、时钟同步质量等。     

具有间歇性执行器故障的非线性系统自适应CFB控制

控制系统的执行器经常发生各种未知的间歇性故障. 如何有效地处理这些故障对系统的影响是一个难题. 针对一类不确定严格反馈非线性系统, 提出一种自适应CFB (Command filtered backstepping) 控制方案解决了间歇性执行器故障的补偿问题. 利用神经网络逼近控制器中的未知函数, 并采用投影算子实时在线更新控制器中的估计参数使得参数估计值随着故障次数的累积而不断增加的问题被消除. 提出改进的Lyapunov函数证明了所提出的方案能够保证所有闭环信号的有界性, 同时建立了跟踪误差与Lyapunov函数跳变幅度, 最小故障时间间隔, 设计参数之间的关系. 如果Lyapunov函数的跳变幅度越小以及两个连续故障之间的时间间隔越长, 系统的稳态跟踪指标越好. 通过迭代计算建立了暂态跟踪误差指标的均方根型界. 该界表明了通过选择恰当的设计参数, 可改善系统的暂态指标. 仿真结果表明了所提方案的有效性.