On the chronometry and metrology of computer network timescales and their application to the network time protocol

This paper summarizes issues in computer network timekeeping with respect to the Network Time Protocol, which is used to synchronize time in many of the hosts and gateways of the Internet. It describes the methods used to coordinate and disseminate international time services and how they are incorporated into NTP time servers. It discusses the hazards on reckoning NTP dates with the conventional civil calendar and a standard method for numbering the days. Finally, the paper describes the NTP timescale, its mapping to conventional civil time and date and its interpretation of leap seconds.

[1]  David W. Allan,et al.  Statis-tics of time and frequency data analysis , 1974 .

[2]  Gordon Moyer.  The Gregorian Calendar , 1982 .

[3]  Parameswaran Ramanathan,et al.  Clock Synchronization of a Large Multiprocessor System in the Presence of Malicious Faults , 1987, IEEE Transactions on Computers.

[4]  David L. Mills,et al.  Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation and Analysis , 1992, RFC.

[5]  Dore Ashton,et al.  The Ancient Maya , 1958 .

[6]  David L. Mills.  Network Time Protocol (version 2) specification and implementation , 1989, RFC.

[7]  Jon Postel,et al.  Time Protocol , 1983, RFC.

[8]  William C. Lindsey,et al.  Network Synchronization of Random Signals , 1980, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[9]  M. Davis,et al.  Millisecond Pulsar PSR 1937+21: A Highly Stable Clock , 1987, Science.

[10]  David L. Mills,et al.  On the Accuracy and Stablility of Clocks Synchronized by the Network Time Protocol in the Internet System , 1989, CCRV.

[11]  David L. Mills,et al.  Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation , 1992 .

[12]  Keith Marzullo,et al.  Maintaining the time in a distributed system , 1985, OPSR.

[13]  Loa P. Traxler,et al.  The Ancient Maya , 1947 .

[14]  David L. Mills,et al.  Internet time synchronization: the network time protocol , 1991, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[15]  Peter V Tryon,et al.  Estimating Time From Atomic Clocks. , 1983, Journal of research of the National Bureau of Standards.

[16]  Nachum Dershowitz,et al.  Calendrical calculations , 1990, Softw. Pract. Exp..

[17]  Peter N. Marinos,et al.  Synchronization of Fault-Tolerant Clocks in the Presence of Malicious Failures , 1988, IEEE Trans. Computers.

[18]  B. E. Blair,et al.  Time and Frequency: Theory and Fundamentals , 1974 .

[19]  Keith Marzullo,et al.  Maintaining the time in a distributed system , 1983, PODC '83.

[20]  David L. Mills,et al.  Network Time Protocol (version 1) specification and implementation , 1988, RFC.

[21]  Jon Postel,et al.  User Datagram Protocol , 1980, RFC.

[22]  Parameswaran Ramanathan,et al.  Fault-tolerant clock synchronization in distributed systems , 1990, Computer.