Network Time Server – One Time Fits All

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• Hang on a Second – History of the Leap Second We have all heard of a leap year - that extra day added to the calendar every four years. It may give us a longer February but it is also essential in keeping our calendars and seasons accurate. If the extra day is not added to a leap year then eventually (admittedly after over a century) the Winter will begin in July and the summer will start around Christmas (and vice – versa in the southern hemisphere) because the Earth takes an extra six hours longer than the 365 days of a year to circle the sun. A leap year may ...
  
  
• Leap Second – Errors and Configuration Apart from the usual celebrations and revelry the end of December brought with the addition of another Leap Second to UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC is the global timescale used by computer networks across the world ensuring that everybody is keeping the same time. Leap Seconds are added to UTC by the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) in response to the slowing of the Earth’s rotation due to tidal forces and other anomalies. Failure to insert a leap second would mean that UTC would drift away from GMT (Greenwich Meantime) - often referred to as UT1. GMT is based on ...
  
  
• Network Time Server – Explaining the Leap Second Most network time servers receive in some form UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). This global timescale is received either through a time and frequency transmission such as MSF (UK), DCF (DE) or WWVB (USA) or alternatively through the GPS network (strictly speaking GPS time is not UTC but NTP GPS server will convert the GPS signal into UTC). UTC was developed after the inception of the atomic clock when a new incredibly accurate timescale called International Atomic Time was developed. At first it was thought this timescale could replace the much used GMT (Greenwich meantime) but it was soon discovered that the ...
  
  
• Timescales of NTP – Advanced time server information The NTP timescale is based on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) which is a global civil timescale that is based on International Atomic Time (TAI) but accounts for the slowing of the Earth’s spin by intermittingly adding ‘leap seconds.’ This is done to ensure that UTC is kept in coincidence with GMT (Greenwich Meantime, often referred to as UT1). Failing to account for the Earth’s slowing in its rotation (and occasional speeding up) would mean that UTC would fall out of synchronisation with GMT and noon, when the sun is traditionally the highest in the sky would drift. In fact if leap ...
  
  
• NTP Time Server The Wrist Watch of the World How do you set the time on your watch? From the speaking clock, the chimes of Big Ben perhaps but have you wondered where they get the time from? There is no master clock that the world relies on but there is a global timescale called UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). UTC was developed after the development of atomic clocks. It is based on a combination of International Atomic Time (TAI - the time told by these clocks) and Greenwich Meantime (GMT). While TAI is incredibly accurate it is actually too accurate as the Earths rotation slows due to the effect of the ...