Time-sensitive data delivery in distributed computing systems

A computing device connectable to other computing devices in a distributed computing system by a computer network, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory containing instructions executable by the processor to provide an operating system and one or more applications executing on the computing device, the memory also includes additional instructions executable by the processor to cause the computing device to:
• receive, via the computer network, a packet from another computing device in the distributed computing system, the received packet including:
• a header with a header field containing data representing a delivery time and another header field containing data representing a network address identifying one of the applications executing on the computing device;
• and
• a payload containing data representing a copy of information transmitted to the one of the applications and to other applications executing on other computing devices in the distributed computing system;
• and
• inspect the data in the header field of the received packet to identify the delivery time;
• perform a comparison of the identified delivery time to a system time at the computing device;
• and
• based on the performed comparison, temporarily store the received packet in a buffer without allowing access to the received packet to the one of the applications identified by the network address in the another header field prior to the identified delivery time being expired, thereby preventing the one of the applications from accessing the information in the payload of the packet prior to the identified delivery time being expired.

A method for time-sensitive data delivery in a distributed computing system having a plurality of servers interconnected by a computer network, the method comprising:

• determining, at a server in the distributed computing system, a delivery time corresponding to multiple packets each from a source server and destined to a virtual machine or container hosted on the server or another server in the distributed computing system, the delivery time equals to a current time at the server plus a transmission latency and corresponding to a time before which at least a part of the packets is not accessible by the virtual machine or container;
• and
• transmitting, from the server, the multiple packets to the virtual machines or containers hosted on the server or another server in the distributed computing system, the multiple packets individually include:
• a header with a header field containing data representing the determined delivery time and another header field containing data representing a network address individually identifying the virtual machines or containers hosted on the server or the another server;
• and
• a payload containing data representing copies of information destined to the virtual machines or containers.