Coordination systems

Coordination in distributed systems refers to the mechanisms that ensure different parts of the system, distributed across various nodes, work together cohesively. These coordination techniques are critical for achieving synchronized operations and consistency across nodes. This section will cover several key patterns:

• Clock synchronization ensures that nodes maintain a consistent view of time.

• Event Ordering arranges actions in the correct sequence across distributed nodes.

• Logical Clocks (e.g., Lamport timestamps) help track the order of events without relying on synchronized physical clocks.

• Causal Ordering of Messages ensures that messages are delivered in the correct causal sequence.

• Multicast Message Ordering guarantees the order of message delivery to multiple recipients.

• Interval Events track occurrences within time intervals to manage system states.

• Gossip-based coordination is a decentralized protocol where nodes exchange information locally to eventually achieve global consistency.

• Location Systems manage and track where specific resources or nodes are located within the network.

• Distributed Event Matching coordinates events between nodes based on shared interests or patterns.

• Global States help maintain a consistent global view of the distributed system’s state at any given time.

• Termination Detection helps identify when a distributed computation has completed across all nodes.

For each of these patterns, I will define the problem, explain the use cases, and provide Golang-based code implementations to demonstrate practical coordination mechanisms in distributed systems.