Berkeley’s Algorithm

Berkeley’s Algorithm is a clock synchronization technique used in distributed systems. The algorithm assumes that each machine node in the network either doesn’t have an accurate time source or doesn’t possess an UTC server.

Algorithm
1) An individual node is chosen as the master node from a pool nodes in the network. This node is the main node in the network which acts as a master and rest of the nodes act as slaves. Master node is chosen using a election process/leader election algorithm.

2) Master node periodically pings slaves nodes and fetches clock time at them using Cristian’s algorithm.

Diagram below illustrates how the master sends request to slave nodes.
Ping for time at client side

Diagram below illustrates how slave nodes send back time given by their system clock.
Receive time from slaves/clients

3) Master node calculates average time difference between all the clock times received and the clock time given by master’s system clock itself. This average time difference is added to the current time at master’s system clock and broadcasted over the network.

Psuedocode for above step:

# receiving time from all slave nodes
repeat_for_all_slaves:
 time_at_slave_node = receive_time_at_slave()
 # calculating time difference
 time_difference = time_at_master_node - time_at_slave_node

# average time difference calculation
average_time_difference = sum(all_time_differences) / number_of_slaves

synchronized_time = current_master_time + average_time_difference

# broadcasting synchronized to whole network
broadcast_time_to_all_slaves(synchronized_time)

Diagram below illustrates the last step of Berkeley’s algorithm.
Send back synchronized to slaves

Scope of Improvement

Improvision in accuracy of cristian’s algorithm.
Ignoring significant outliers in calculation of average time difference
In case master node fails/corrupts, a secondary leader must be ready/pre-chosen to take the place of the master node to reduce downtime caused due to master’s unavailability.
Instead of sending the synchronized time, master broadcasts relative inverse time difference, which leads to decrease in latency induced by traversal time in the network while time of calculation at slave node.

The code below is a python script which can be used to trigger a master clock server.

# Python3 program imitating a clock server 
  
from functools import reduce
from dateutil import parser 
import threading 
import datetime 
import socket 
import time 
  
  
# datastructure used to store client address and clock data 
client_data = {} 
  
  
''' nested thread function used to receive  
    clock time from a connected client '''
def startRecieveingClockTime(connector, address): 
  
    while True: 
        # recieve clock time 
        clock_time_string = connector.recv(1024).decode() 
        clock_time = parser.parse(clock_time_string) 
        clock_time_diff = datetime.datetime.now() -  
                                                 clock_time 
  
        client_data[address] = { 
                       "clock_time"      : clock_time, 
                       "time_difference" : clock_time_diff, 
                       "connector"       : connector 
                       } 
  
        print("Client Data updated with: "+ str(address), 
                                              end = "
") 
        time.sleep(5) 
  
  
''' master thread function used to open portal for  
    accepting clients over given port '''
def startConnecting(master_server): 
      
    # fetch clock time at slaves / clients 
    while True: 
        # accepting a client / slave clock client 
        master_slave_connector, addr = master_server.accept() 
        slave_address = str(addr[0]) + ":" + str(addr[1]) 
  
        print(slave_address + " got connected successfully") 
  
        current_thread = threading.Thread( 
                         target = startRecieveingClockTime, 
                         args = (master_slave_connector, 
                                           slave_address, )) 
        current_thread.start() 
  
  
# subroutine function used to fetch average clock difference 
def getAverageClockDiff(): 
  
    current_client_data = client_data.copy() 
  
    time_difference_list = list(client['time_difference']  
                                for client_addr, client  
                                    in client_data.items()) 
                                     
  
    sum_of_clock_difference = sum(time_difference_list, 
                                   datetime.timedelta(0, 0)) 
  
    average_clock_difference = sum_of_clock_difference 
                                         / len(client_data) 
  
    return  average_clock_difference 
  
  
''' master sync thread function used to generate  
    cycles of clock synchronization in the network '''
def synchronizeAllClocks(): 
  
    while True: 
  
        print("New synchroniztion cycle started.") 
        print("Number of clients to be synchronized: " +  
                                     str(len(client_data))) 
  
        if len(client_data) > 0: 
  
            average_clock_difference = getAverageClockDiff() 
  
            for client_addr, client in client_data.items(): 
                try: 
                    synchronized_time =  
                         datetime.datetime.now() +  
                                    average_clock_difference 
  
                    client['connector'].send(str( 
                               synchronized_time).encode()) 
  
                except Exception as e: 
                    print("Something went wrong while " +  
                          "sending synchronized time " +  
                          "through " + str(client_addr)) 
  
        else : 
            print("No client data." +  
                        " Synchronization not applicable.") 
  
        print("
") 
  
        time.sleep(5) 
  
  
# function used to initiate the Clock Server / Master Node 
def initiateClockServer(port = 8080): 
  
    master_server = socket.socket() 
    master_server.setsockopt(socket.SOL_SOCKET, 
                                   socket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1) 
  
    print("Socket at master node created successfully
") 
        
    master_server.bind(('', port)) 
  
    # Start listening to requests 
    master_server.listen(10) 
    print("Clock server started...
") 
  
    # start making connections 
    print("Starting to make connections...
") 
    master_thread = threading.Thread( 
                        target = startConnecting, 
                        args = (master_server, )) 
    master_thread.start() 
  
    # start synchroniztion 
    print("Starting synchronization parallely...
") 
    sync_thread = threading.Thread( 
                          target = synchronizeAllClocks, 
                          args = ()) 
    sync_thread.start() 
  
  
  
# Driver function 
if __name__ == '__main__': 
  
    # Trigger the Clock Server 
    initiateClockServer(port = 8080) 

Output:

New synchroniztion cycle started.
Number of clients to be synchronized: 3

Client Data updated with: 127.0.0.1:57284

Client Data updated with: 127.0.0.1:57274

Client Data updated with: 127.0.0.1:57272

The code below is a python script which can be used to trigger a slave/client.

# Python3 program imitating a client process 
  
from timeit import default_timer as timer 
from dateutil import parser 
import threading 
import datetime 
import socket  
import time 
  
  
# client thread function used to send time at client side 
def startSendingTime(slave_client): 
  
    while True: 
        # provide server with clock time at the client 
        slave_client.send(str( 
                       datetime.datetime.now()).encode()) 
  
        print("Recent time sent successfully", 
                                          end = "
") 
        time.sleep(5) 
  
  
# client thread function used to receive synchronized time 
def startReceivingTime(slave_client): 
  
    while True: 
        # receive data from the server 
        Synchronized_time = parser.parse( 
                          slave_client.recv(1024).decode()) 
  
        print("Synchronized time at the client is: " +  
                                    str(Synchronized_time), 
                                    end = "
") 
  
  
# function used to Synchronize client process time 
def initiateSlaveClient(port = 8080): 
  
    slave_client = socket.socket()           
        
    # connect to the clock server on local computer  
    slave_client.connect(('127.0.0.1', port))  
  
    # start sending time to server  
    print("Starting to receive time from server
") 
    send_time_thread = threading.Thread( 
                      target = startSendingTime, 
                      args = (slave_client, )) 
    send_time_thread.start() 
  
  
    # start recieving synchronized from server 
    print("Starting to recieving " +  
                         "synchronized time from server
") 
    receive_time_thread = threading.Thread( 
                       target = startReceivingTime, 
                       args = (slave_client, )) 
    receive_time_thread.start() 
  
  
# Driver function 
if __name__ == '__main__': 
  
    # initialize the Slave / Client 
    initiateSlaveClient(port = 8080) 

Output:

Recent time sent successfully
Synchronized time at the client is: 2018-11-23 18:49:31.166449

Below is a screenshot of runtime of above python scripts where top left console represents master thread while others represents slave threads.
Berkley Algorithm imitation

Note: The scripts above closely depicts working of Berkley’s Algorithm but may differ from the actual implementation of the algorithm in production based distributed networking systems. Availability of port 8080 is machine dependent. In case port 8080 is not free, change the port number accordingly in both master and slave scripts.

References:

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