Improving causality logging in mobile computing networks

Abstract

Vector clocks, or their compressed representations, have played a central role in the detection of causal dependencies between events in a distributed system. When adapting these techniques to a mobile network, bounding the vector clock size to the number of mobile nodes does not provide a satisfactory approach. This paper builds on previous techniques for efficient causality logging in mobile networks and presents a lighter logging mechanism. The technique is based on a particular partial order that is generated by the interleaving of events on mobile hosts that are mediated by the same support station.