I mean realtime inter-node message passing in a tree topology network, with message frequency associated to edges, like shown in [1]. Each nodes might run on its own CPU clocks, but message exchanges occur realtime, progressively faster at each depth, and the system as a whole(what "Autonomous System" probably supposed to mean) runs as a slow but coherent realtime cluster.

Perhaps the idea that message passing has to happen realtime is something obvious or elementary to military/defense/aerospace from technical requirements or experiences fighting fog of war etc., but to me it was dumbfounding new and I guess it might also be for the general public?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:4D-RCS_reference_model_ar...