*Start()* will enter a loop. In each iteration, it tries to collect input messges from *inputChan*, then prepare node's input. When input is ready, it will trigger *node.Operate*. When *node.Operate* returns, it sends the returned *Msg* to *outputChans*, which connects to the downstreams' *inputChans*.
Let's take a brief review of Hybrid Logical Clock (HLC). HLC uses 64bits timestamps which are composed of a 46-bits physical component (thought of as and always close to local wall time) and a 18-bits logical component (used to distinguish between events with the same physical component).
HLC's logical part is advanced on each request. The phsical part can be increased in two cases:
A. when the local wall time is greater than HLC's physical part,
B. or the logical part overflows.
In either cases, the physical part will be updated, and the logical part will be set to 0.
Keep the physical part close to local wall time may face non-monotonic problems such as updates to POSIX time that could turn time backward. HLC avoids such problems, since if 'local wall time <HLC'sphysicalpart'holds,onlycaseBissatisfied,thusmontonicityisguaranteed.
Milvus does not support transaction, but it should gurantee the deterministic execution of the multi-way WAL. The timestamp attached to each request should
- have its physical part close to wall time (has an acceptable bounded error, a.k.a. uncertainty interval in transaction senarios),
- and be globally unique.
HLC leverages on physical clocks at nodes that are synchronized using the NTP. NTP usually maintain time to within tens of milliseconds over local networks in datacenter. Asymmetric routes and network congestion occasionally cause errors of hundreds of milliseconds. Both the normal time error and the spike are acceptable for Milvus use cases.
The interface of Timestamp is as follows.
```
type timestamp struct {
physical uint64 // 18-63 bits
logical uint64 // 0-17 bits
}
type Timestamp uint64
```
###### A.6.2 Timestamp Oracle
```go
type timestampOracle struct {
client *etcd.Client // client of a reliable meta service, i.e. etcd client
rootPath string // this timestampOracle's working root path on the reliable kv service