Dynamic Fault-Tolerant Clock Synchronization

This paper gives two simple efficient distributed algorithms: one for keeping clocks in a network synchronized and one for allowing new processors to join the network with their clocks synchronized. Assuming a fault-tolerant authentication protocol, the algorithms tolerate both link and processor failures of any type. The algorithm for maintaining synchronization works for arbitrary networks 1995 and tolerates any number of processor or communication link faults as long as the correct processors remain connected by fault-free paths. It thus represents an improvement over other clock synchronization algorithms such as those of Lamport and Melliar Smith and Welch and Lynch, although, unlike them, it does require an authentication protocol to handle Byzantine faults. Our algorithm for allowing new processors to join requires that more than half the processors be correct, a requirement that is provably necessary.