Work-in-Progress: A Novel Clock Synchronization System for Large-Scale Clusters

Zhuochen Fan, Xiaodong Li, Yanwei Xu, Yuqing Li, Tong Yang, Steve Uhlig

Abstract: Clock synchronization is essential in real-time applications of large-scale clusters. State-of-the-art Huygens clock synchronization reduces synchronization errors through offset probing loop correction between data center servers. However, Huygens does not offer a solution for large-scale clusters. In this paper, we propose a novel and scalable CAT-Sync clock synchronization system for large-scale clusters, which includes three key techniques: optimal probe topology Construction, probing channel Assignment, and Time-slice synchronization. In CAT-Sync, the workload of each host is the same and will not increase with the expansion of the cluster size. Our CAT-Sync system achieves a stable clock synchronization accuracy within 2 microseconds on 60 virtual machines, and the average clock offset for the entire synchronization process is improved by about 44.8% compared to Huygens.