Interactive publication
Back to the catalogueDistributed systemsCase 03 of 05
Lamport / vector clocks (causal ≠ UTC order)
Causal order and UTC order are different relations. A can happen-before B while A's UTC timestamp is later, because of queue delay, retry, or skew. Event sourcing and multi-agent systems need the causal order.
Class
Case to account for
Affects
1 conversion
01
Detection
Downstream logic depends on ordering across nodes/agents.
02
Mitigation
01
Carry a Lamport or vector timestamp (or a hybrid logical clock) for ordering; keep UTC for wall-clock reporting.
03
Affected conversions
semantics
OPEN