[58831] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Non-GPS derived timing sources (was Re: NTp sources that work
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Mon Jun 2 17:56:20 2003
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2003 17:55:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
To: Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <20030602110239.GA47873@ussenterprise.ufp.org>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
On Mon, 2 Jun 2003, Leo Bicknell wrote:
> Could it be that providers actually have multiple sources, but for
> some reason GPS is always picked as the primary source for the
> public facing function? At least a few providers keep their actual
> sources (the receivers themselves) "hidden", and provide a unix box
> syncing to all of them as the front end. From my limited knowledge,
> that front end box will only show the one source it has picked as
> "best".
Like all answers, it depends.
A relatively small number of providers have blocked access to their
"master" NTP servers. So you can't see the current source from the next
stratum down. You get a domain name, like ntp-1.ispdom.ain, for the
source.
But a large number permit queries to their NTP servers. They will report
all the stratum 0 sources available, including the current sync'd source.
Almost no providers use more than one stratum 0 source per NTP server.
The people with lots of stratum 0 sources are almost never network service
providers. Generally NSPs have 1 stratum 0 source, a two or three stratum
1 peers, and lots of stratum 2s. Most providers don't have a dedicated NTP
infrastructure, so their tickers are running on routers and general
purpose servers.
Due to the way NTP works, it is a self-directed hierarchy. A stratum 1
chimer is only at the top while its synced to a stratum 0 source.
