Virtual Time and Timeout in Client-Server Networks

Abstract

This paper proposes that virtual time and virtual time-outs should be available as tools for programming distributed systems. Virtual time is already used for event ordering in distributed systems [4,3,5,1,9], though the numeric value of virtual time is irrelevant in this context (see Section 2). Virtual time-out has not been used in distributed systems. Virtual clock, i.e., virtual time and time-outs, is used in discrete event simulation applications though such applications are usually implemented on single machines using a single virtual clock, rather than on distributed systems.