Resettable vector clocks

Vector clocks (VC) are an inherent component of a rich class of distributed applications. In this paper, we first consider the problem of realistic implementation—more specifically, bounded-space and fault-tolerant—of applications that use vector clocks (VC). To this end, we generalize the notion of VC to resettable vector clocks (RVC), and provide a realistic implementation of RVC. Further, we identify an interface contract under which our RVC implementation can be substituted for VC in client applications, without affecting the client's correctness. This interface contract is designed for phase-based applications that provide certain communication guarantees. Based on such substitution and the use of the interface contract, we show how to transform the client so that it is itself realistically implemented. We illustrate our method in the context of Ricart–Agrawala's mutual exclusion program and Garg–Chase's predicate detection program.