ABSTRACT
In this context, the state (also known as global state or configuration) of a distributed system is the set of local states of all the component processes as well as the states of every channel through which messages ow. Since the local physical clocks are never perfectly synchronized, the components of a global state can never be recorded at the same time. In asynchronous distributed systems, actions are not related to time. So the important question is as follows: When or how do we record the states of the processes and the channels? Depending on when the states of the individual components are recorded, the value of the global state can vary widely.
