Network Time Protocol (NTP) was designed and developed over twenty five years ago but is still in use and constantly updated. It was developed when the Internet was in its infancy as a way to synchronise time across the world wide web.
NTP is now the standard time synchronisation protocol with networks all ove the world using it to ensure their computers and devices are all synchronised.
Most NTP time servers are synchronised to the universal timescale UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) which was developed in the 1970’s after the introduction advancement of atomic clocks.
Not every NTP time server is synchronised to a UTC source. NTP can synchronise to any time source even the highly inaccurate system clock on most computers or indeed a wrist watch or wall clock.
But the benefits of having a network synchronised to UTC are many fold. UTC allows computers all over the world to communicate using the same timescale, allowing time sensitive transactions to take place. As timestamps are an integral part of all computer processes and applications it also ensures a higher level of security to a network.
Receiving a UTC time source is relatively simple. some NTP time servers use an Internet based timing source although these are not recommended as they can vary in accuracy and can’t be authenticated by NTP software making a system vulnerable to attack.
However, a NTP time server can receive a UTC timing reference via a radio receiver (only available in certain countries) or the GPS network.
Using a GPS or radio referenced source for a NTP time server means networks can maintain an accuracy to within a few milliseconds of UTC time.
NTP time servers are relatively inexpensive and extremely simple to set up.