Why is computer clock synchronization necessary? Describe the design requirements for a system to synchronize the clocks in a distributed system.

What will be an ideal response?

Major design requirements:

i) there should be a limit on deviation between clocks or between any clock and UTC;

ii) clocks should only ever advance;

iii) only authorized principals may reset clock

In practice (i) cannot be achieved unless only benign failures are assumed to occur and the system is synchronous.