NTP Server - Keeping Track of Time.

This article explains the NTP server, what it is for and how it is used.

When you set your watch by the speaking clock or the radio beeps have you ever wondered who is responsible for setting that time and how they can be sure it is accurate.

This may seem like a straightforward question but their is no master clock that the world can tune in to but we do have the next best thing called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC is a global timescale based on the time told by atomic clocks (International Atomic Time).

As the time kept by atomic clocks is so accurate (a second is not gained or lost  in several hundred million years using current atomic clock technology) it is far more accurate than existing timescale such as GMT (Greenwich Meantime). The problem being that the Earth is not precise in its rotation, slowing down every now and again due to the effects of the Moon's gravity. To compensate for this UTC adds 'Leap Seconds' so as to keep it in-line with GMT (and to keep the Sun above the meridian line at noon and prevent the gradual drift of night into day).

UTC is governed by a constellation of atomic clocks, this ensures greater accuracy as an average is taken of all the times (although difference are in nano-seconds (billionths of a second) and also this method prevent any one country having political control of UTC.

The fundamental measurement of time is the second. Before atomic clocks a second was simply a division of the number of seconds in a 24 hour period (86,400 seconds in a day). However since the development of atomic clocks a second has been defined by the International System of Units as the resonance of the caesium -133 atom, used in atomic clocks and oscillates 9,192,631,770 every second.

UTC has been vital in governing the way we work and trade in a global community allowing trade across timezones to be done both confidently and securely. using the NTP server (Network Time Protocol)

NTP servers are devices that can receive a UTC timing signal from either directly from an atomic clock using a national time and frequency transmission, although not every country has one. Or, more conveniently a NTP server can receive the timing signal from a GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite's atomic clock and convert it to UTC.

A NTP server will then synchronise all computers and devices on a network to this UTC time source. while NTP is not the only time synchronisation protocol it is by far the most commonly used wiht the majority of synchronised networks using it.

Article Tags: Atomic Clocks, Atomic Clock

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