Logical Clocks
Logical clocks are a mechanism in distributed systems for ordering events without relying on synchronized physical clocks. They assign logical timestamps to events based on causality (happens-before relationships), ensuring a partial order that reflects the system's event flow. This concept is fundamental for ensuring consistency, debugging, and implementing algorithms like distributed snapshots or consensus protocols.
Developers should learn logical clocks when working on distributed systems where events occur across multiple nodes without a global clock, such as in cloud applications, microservices, or blockchain networks. They are essential for implementing features like causal consistency, detecting concurrency issues, and enabling reliable message ordering in asynchronous environments, helping to avoid race conditions and data anomalies.