Traceability of computer synchronised using Network Time Protocol to national timing centers

Project Description

Most computers connected all over the world through Internet can be synchronised in time using different Internet protocols.

The "Network Time Protocol (NTP)" has been demonstrated to be one of the most accurate method to synchronise computer clocks to each other and to a variety of external devices that provide precise UTC time using electromagnetic / electronic signals (Loran C, DCF 77, MSF, Telephone code, GPS , GLONASS, local UTC(k) based on 1PPS from Cs clock,...)

The different ways that these signals are supplied to the computer (serial port, parallel port, PC- card) how these signals contribute to the maintenance of an internal Time scale in the computer (delay and latency estimations) and the way that this Time scale is distributed through the Network have to be investigated in order to determine the performance (accuracy, stability, dependencies on network parameters, ..) of the different NTP software modules, different types of computers and the NTP protocol itself.

Final Report 2010-02-23

During the execution of the project a survey was done around the Institutes that offer an NTP
service to customers. Most of the European Timing Institutes joined the project.
A web monitoring service was put into operation at ROA, where the participants have available
the data on how a client could track the timing signals of each and every server. The access to
the service is closed to the participant by a password.
After the ending of this project the service will continue running as a complementary service to
the European Timing Institutes.