In synchronize logical clocks lamport defined a relation called happens-before.

the happens-before relation can be observed directly in two situations.

1) If a and b are events in same process and a occurs before b, the a→b is true.

2) If a is the event of a message being sent by another process then a→b is also true.

3) A message cannot be received before it is sent, even at the same time it is sent , since it takes a finite(non-zero) amount of time to arrive.

4) The happen-before is a transitive relation so if a→b & b→c then a→c.

5) If two events, x & y happen in different processes that do not exchange message, then x→y is not true but neither is y→x.

6) the events are said to be concurrent which simply means that nothing can be said about when the event happened which event happened first.

a) 3-process each with its own clock, the clocks run at different rates. b) Lamport algorithm corrects the clocks.

7)Using these method , there is a way to assign time to all events in a distributed system subject to the following condition.

• If a and b represent to sending and receiving of a message, respectively c(a)>c(b),
• If a happens before b in the same process, c(a)<c(b)< li="">

• for all distinctive event a and b,

  e.g. totally ordered multicasting.