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RFC 1059

Network Time Protocol (version 1) specification and implementation

Pages: 58
Obsoletes:  0958
Obsoleted by:  11191305
Part 1 of 2 – Pages 1 to 22
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ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 1
Network Working Group                                        D. Mills
Request for Comments:  1059                    University of Delaware
                                                            July 1988

                   Network Time Protocol (Version 1)
                    Specification and Implementation

Status of this Memo

   This memo describes the Network Time Protocol (NTP), specifies its
   formal structure and summarizes information useful for its
   implementation.  NTP provides the mechanisms to synchronize time and
   coordinate time distribution in a large, diverse internet operating
   at rates from mundane to lightwave.  It uses a returnable-time design
   in which a distributed subnet of time servers operating in a self-
   organizing, hierarchical master-slave configuration synchronizes
   logical clocks within the subnet and to national time standards via
   wire or radio.  The servers can also redistribute reference time via
   local routing algorithms and time daemons.

   The NTP architectures, algorithms and protocols which have evolved
   over several years of implementation and refinement are described in
   this document.  The prototype system, which has been in regular
   operation in the Internet for the last two years, is described in an
   Appendix along with performance data which shows that timekeeping
   accuracy throughout most portions of the Internet can be ordinarily
   maintained to within a few tens of milliseconds, even in cases of
   failure or disruption of clocks, time servers or nets.  This is a
   Draft Standard for an Elective protocol.  Distribution of this memo
   is unlimited.

Table of Contents

   1.      Introduction                                               3
   1.1.    Related Technology                                         4
   2.      System Architecture                                        6
   2.1.    Implementation Model                                       7
   2.2.    Network Configurations                                     9
   2.3.    Time Scales                                               10
   3.      Network Time Protocol                                     12
   3.1.    Data Formats                                              12
   3.2.    State Variables and Parameters                            13
   3.2.1.  Common Variables                                          15
   3.2.2.  System Variables                                          17
   3.2.3.  Peer Variables                                            18
   3.2.4.  Packet Variables                                          19
   3.2.5.  Clock Filter Variables                                    19
   3.2.6.  Parameters                                                20
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   3.3.    Modes of Operation                                        21
   3.4.    Event Processing                                          22
   3.4.1.  Timeout Procedure                                         23
   3.4.2.  Receive Procedure                                         24
   3.4.3.  Update Procedure                                          27
   3.4.4.  Initialization Procedures                                 29
   4.      Filtering and Selection Algorithms                        29
   4.1.    Clock Filter Algorithm                                    29
   4.2     Clock Selection Algorithm                                 30
   4.3.    Variable-Rate Polling                                     32
   5.      Logical Clocks                                            33
   5.1.    Uniform Phase Adjustments                                 35
   5.2.    Nonuniform Phase Adjustments                              36
   5.3.    Maintaining Date and Time                                 37
   5.4.    Calculating Estimates                                     37
   6.      References                                                40

   Appendices
   Appendix A. UDP Header Format                                     43
   Appendix B. NTP Data Format                                       44
   Appendix C. Timeteller Experiments                                47
   Appendix D. Evaluation of Filtering Algorithms                    49
   Appendix E. NTP Synchronization Networks                          56

List of Figures

   Figure 2.1. Implementation Model                                   8
   Figure 3.1. Calculating Delay and Offset                          26
   Figure 5.1. Clock Registers                                       34
   Figure D.1. Calculating Delay and Offset                          50
   Figure E.1. Primary Service Network                               57

List of Tables

   Table 2.1. Dates of Leap-Second Insertion                         11
   Table 3.1. System Variables                                       14
   Table 3.2. Peer Variables                                         14
   Table 3.3. Packet Variables                                       15
   Table 3.4. Parameters                                             15
   Table 4.1. Outlyer Selection Procedure                            32
   Table 5.1. Clock Parameters                                       35
   Table C.1. Distribution Functions                                 47
   Table D.1. Delay and Offset Measurements (UMD)                    52
   Table D.2.a Delay and Offset Measurements (UDEL)                  52
   Table D.2.b Offset Measurements (UDEL)                            53
   Table D.3. Minimum Filter (UMD - NCAR)                            54
   Table D.4. Median Filter (UMD - NCAR)                             54
   Table D.5. Minimum Filter (UDEL - NCAR)                           55
   Table E.1. Primary Servers                                        56
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1.  Introduction

   This document describes the Network Time Protocol (NTP), including
   the architectures, algorithms and protocols to synchronize local
   clocks in a set of distributed clients and servers.  The protocol was
   first described in RFC-958 [24], but has evolved in significant ways
   since publication of that document.  NTP is built on the Internet
   Protocol (IP) [10] and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) [6], which
   provide a connectionless transport mechanism;  however, it is readily
   adaptable to other protocol suites.  It is evolved from the Time
   Protocol [13] and the ICMP Timestamp message [11], but is
   specifically designed to maintain accuracy and robustness, even when
   used over typical Internet paths involving multiple gateways and
   unreliable nets.

   The service environment consists of the implementation model, service
   model and time scale described in Section 2.  The implementation
   model is based on a multiple-process operating system architecture,
   although other architectures could be used as well.  The service
   model is based on a returnable-time design which depends only on
   measured offsets, or skews, but does not require reliable message
   delivery.  The subnet is a self-organizing, hierarchical master-slave
   configuration, with synchronization paths determined by a minimum-
   weight spanning tree.  While multiple masters (primary servers) may
   exist, there is no requirement for an election protocol.

   NTP itself is described in Section 3.  It provides the protocol
   mechanisms to synchronize time in principle to precisions in the
   order of nanoseconds while preserving a non-ambiguous date well into
   the next century.  The protocol includes provisions to specify the
   characteristics and estimate the error of the local clock and the
   time server to which it may be synchronized.  It also includes
   provisions for operation with a number of mutually suspicious,
   hierarchically distributed primary reference sources such as radio
   clocks.

   Section 4 describes algorithms useful for deglitching and smoothing
   clock-offset samples collected on a continuous basis.  These
   algorithms began with those suggested in [22], were refined as the
   results of experiments described in [23] and further evolved under
   typical operating conditions over the last two years.  In addition,
   as the result of experience in operating multiple-server nets
   including radio-synchronized clocks at several sites in the US and
   with clients in the US and Europe, reliable algorithms for selecting
   good clocks from a population possibly including broken ones have
   been developed and are described in Section 4.

   The accuracies achievable by NTP depend strongly on the precision of
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 4
   the local clock hardware and stringent control of device and process
   latencies.  Provisions must be included to adjust the software
   logical clock time and frequency in response to corrections produced
   by NTP.  Section 5 describes a logical clock design evolved from the
   Fuzzball implementation described in [15].  This design includes
   offset-slewing, drift-compensation and deglitching mechanisms capable
   of accuracies in order of a millisecond, even after extended periods
   when synchronization to primary reference sources has been lost.

   The UDP and NTP packet formats are shown in Appendices A and B.
   Appendix C presents the results of a survey of about 5500 Internet
   hosts showing how their clocks compare with primary reference sources
   using three different time protocols, including NTP.  Appendix D
   presents experimental results using several different deglitching and
   smoothing algorithms.  Appendix E describes the prototype NTP primary
   service net, as well as proposed rules of engagement for its use.

1.1.  Related Technology

   Other mechanisms have been specified in the Internet protocol suite
   to record and transmit the time at which an event takes place,
   including the Daytime protocol [12], Time Protocol [13], ICMP
   Timestamp message [11] and IP Timestamp option [9].  Experimental
   results on measured times and roundtrip delays in the Internet are
   discussed in [14], [23] and [31].  Other synchronization protocols
   are discussed in [7], [17], [20] and [28].  NTP uses techniques
   evolved from both linear and nonlinear synchronization methodology.
   Linear methods used for digital telephone network synchronization are
   summarized in [3], while nonlinear methods used for process
   synchronization are summarized in [27].

   The Fuzzball routing protocol [15], sometimes called Hellospeak,
   incorporates time synchronization directly into the routing protocol
   design.  One or more processes synchronize to an external reference
   source, such as a radio clock or NTP daemon, and the routing
   algorithm constructs a minimum-weight spanning tree rooted on these
   processes.  The clock offsets are then distributed along the arcs of
   the spanning tree to all processes in the system and the various
   process clocks corrected using the procedure described in Section 5
   of this document.  While it can be seen that the design of Hellospeak
   strongly influenced the design of NTP, Hellospeak itself is not an
   Internet protocol and is unsuited for use outside its local-net
   environment.

   The Unix 4.3bsd model [20] uses a single master time daemon to
   measure offsets of a number of slave hosts and send periodic
   corrections to them.  In this model the master is determined using an
   election algorithm [25] designed to avoid situations where either no
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 5
   master is elected or more than one master is elected.  The election
   process requires a broadcast capability, which is not a ubiquitous
   feature of the Internet.  While this model has been extended to
   support hierarchical configurations in which a slave on one network
   serves as a master on the other [28], the model requires handcrafted
   configuration tables in order to establish the hierarchy and avoid
   loops.  In addition to the burdensome, but presumably infrequent,
   overheads of the election process, the offset measurement/correction
   process requires twice as many messages as NTP per update.

   A good deal of research has gone into the issue of maintaining
   accurate time in a community where some clocks cannot be trusted.  A
   truechimer is a clock that maintains timekeeping accuracy to a
   previously published (and trusted) standard, while a falseticker is a
   clock that does not.  Determining whether a particular clock is a
   truechimer or falseticker is an interesting abstract problem which
   can be attacked using methods summarized in [19] and [27].

   A convergence function operates upon the offsets between the clocks
   in a system to increase the accuracy by reducing or eliminating
   errors caused by falsetickers.  There are two classes of convergence
   functions, those involving interactive convergence algorithms and
   those involving interactive consistency algorithms.  Interactive
   convergence algorithms use statistical clustering techniques such as
   the fault-tolerant average algorithm of [17], the CNV algorithm of
   [19], the majority-subset algorithm of [22], the egocentric algorithm
   of [27] and the algorithms in Section 4 of this document.

   Interactive consistency algorithms are designed to detect faulty
   clock processes which might indicate grossly inconsistent offsets in
   successive readings or to different readers.  These algorithms use an
   agreement protocol involving successive rounds of readings, possibly
   relayed and possibly augmented by digital signatures.  Examples
   include the fireworks algorithm of [17] and the optimum algorithm of
   [30].  However, these algorithms require large numbers of messages,
   especially when large numbers of clocks are involved, and are
   designed to detect faults that have rarely been found in the Internet
   experience.  For these reasons they are not considered further in
   this document.

   In practice it is not possible to determine the truechimers from the
   falsetickers on other than a statistical basis, especially with
   hierarchical configurations and a statistically noisy Internet.
   Thus, the approach taken in this document and its predecessors
   involves mutually coupled oscillators and maximum-likelihood
   estimation and selection procedures.  From the analytical point of
   view, the system of distributed NTP peers operates as a set of
   coupled phase-locked oscillators, with the update algorithm
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 6
   functioning as a phase detector and the logical clock as a voltage-
   controlled oscillator.  This similarity is not accidental, since
   systems like this have been studied extensively [3], [4] and [5].

   The particular choice of offset measurement and computation procedure
   described in Section 3 is a variant of the returnable-time system
   used in some digital telephone networks [3].  The clock filter and
   selection algorithms are designed so that the clock synchronization
   subnet self-organizes into a hierarchical master-slave configuration
   [5].  What makes the NTP model unique is the adaptive configuration,
   polling, filtering and selection functions which tailor the dynamics
   of the system to fit the ubiquitous Internet environment.

2.  System Architecture

   The purpose of NTP is to connect a number of primary reference
   sources, synchronized to national standards by wire or radio, to
   widely accessible resources such as backbone gateways.  These
   gateways, acting as primary time servers, use NTP between them to
   cross-check the clocks and mitigate errors due to equipment or
   propagation failures.  Some number of local-net hosts or gateways,
   acting as secondary time servers, run NTP with one or more of the
   primary servers.  In order to reduce the protocol overhead the
   secondary servers distribute time via NTP to the remaining local-net
   hosts.  In the interest of reliability, selected hosts can be
   equipped with less accurate but less expensive radio clocks and used
   for backup in case of failure of the primary and/or secondary servers
   or communication paths between them.

   There is no provision for peer discovery, acquisition, or
   authentication in NTP.  Data integrity is provided by the IP and UDP
   checksums.  No circuit-management, duplicate-detection or
   retransmission facilities are provided or necessary.  The service can
   operate in a symmetric mode, in which servers and clients are
   indistinguishable, yet maintain a small amount of state information,
   or in client/server mode, in which servers need maintain no state
   other than that contained in the client request.  A lightweight
   association-management capability, including dynamic reachability and
   variable polling rate mechanisms, is included only to manage the
   state information and reduce resource requirements.  Since only a
   single NTP message format is used, the protocol is easily implemented
   and can be used in a variety of solicited or unsolicited polling
   mechanisms.

   It should be recognized that clock synchronization requires by its
   nature long periods and multiple comparisons in order to maintain
   accurate timekeeping.  While only a few measurements are usually
   adequate to reliably determine local time to within a second or so,
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 7
   periods of many hours and dozens of measurements are required to
   resolve oscillator drift and maintain local time to the order of a
   millisecond.  Thus, the accuracy achieved is directly dependent on
   the time taken to achieve it.  Fortunately, the frequency of
   measurements can be quite low and almost always non-intrusive to
   normal net operations.

2.1.  Implementation Model

   In what may be the most common client/server model a client sends an
   NTP message to one or more servers and processes the replies as
   received.  The server interchanges addresses and ports, overwrites
   certain fields in the message, recalculates the checksum and returns
   the message immediately.  Information included in the NTP message
   allows the client to determine the server time with respect to local
   time and adjust the logical clock accordingly.  In addition, the
   message includes information to calculate the expected timekeeping
   accuracy and reliability, thus select the best from possibly several
   servers.

   While the client/server model may suffice for use on local nets
   involving a public server and perhaps many workstation clients, the
   full generality of NTP requires distributed participation of a number
   of client/servers or peers arranged in a dynamically reconfigurable,
   hierarchically distributed configuration.  It also requires
   sophisticated algorithms for association management, data
   manipulation and logical clock control.  Figure 2.1 shows a possible
   implementation model including four processes sharing a partitioned
   data base, with a partition dedicated to each peer and interconnected
   by a message-passing system.
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                                +---------+
                                | Update  |
                     +--------->|         +----------+
                     |          |Algorithm|          |
                     |          +----+----+          |
                     |               |               |
                     |               V               V
                +----+----+     +---------+     +---------+
                |         |     |  Local  |     |         |
                | Receive |     |         +---->| Timeout |
                |         |     |  Clock  |     |         |
                +---------+     +---------+     +-+-----+-+
                  A     A                         |     |
                  |     |                         V     V
                ===========================================
                   Peers          Network          Peers

                     Figure 2.1. Implementation Model

   The timeout process, driven by independent timers for each peer,
   collects information in the data base and sends NTP messages to other
   peers in the net.  Each message contains the local time the message
   is sent, together with previously received information and other
   information necessary to compute the estimated error and manage the
   association.  The message transmission rate is determined by the
   accuracy expected of the local system, as well as its peers.

   The receive process receives NTP messages and perhaps messages in
   other protocols as well, including ICMP, other UDP or TCP time
   protocols, local-net protocols and directly connected radio clocks.
   When an NTP message is received the offset between the sender clock
   and the local clock is computed and incorporated into the data base
   along with other information useful for error estimation and clock
   selection.

   The update algorithm is initiated upon receipt of a message and at
   other times.  It processes the offset data from each peer and selects
   the best peer using algorithms such as those described in Section 4.
   This may involve many observations of a few clocks or a few
   observations of many clocks, depending on the accuracies required.

   The local clock process operates upon the offset data produced by the
   update algorithm and adjusts the phase and frequency of the logical
   clock using mechanisms such as described in Section 5.  This may
   result in either a step change or a gradual slew adjustment of the
   logical clock to reduce the offset to zero.  The logical clock
   provides a stable source of time information to other users of the
   system and for subsequent reference by NTP itself.
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2.2.  Network Configurations

   A primary time server is connected to a primary reference source,
   usually a radio clock synchronized to national standard time.  A
   secondary time server derives time synchronization, possibly via
   other secondary servers, from a primary server.  Under normal
   circumstances it is intended that a subnet of primary and secondary
   servers assumes a hierarchical master-slave configuration with the
   more accurate servers near the top and the less accurate below.

   Following conventions established by the telephone industry, the
   accuracy of each server is defined by a number called its stratum,
   with the stratum of a primary server assigned as one and each level
   downwards in the hierarchy assigned as one greater than the preceding
   level.  With current technology and available receiving equipment,
   single-sample accuracies in the order of a millisecond can be
   achieved at the radio clock interface and in the order of a few
   milliseconds at the packet interface to the net.  Accuracies of this
   order require special care in the design and implementation of the
   operating system, such as described in [15], and the logical clock
   mechanism, such as described in Section 5.

   As the stratum increases from one, the single-sample accuracies
   achievable will degrade depending on the communication paths and
   local clock stabilities.  In order to avoid the tedious calculations
   [4] necessary to estimate errors in each specific configuration, it
   is useful to assume the errors accumulate approximately in proportion
   to the minimum total roundtrip path delay between each server and the
   primary reference source to which it is synchronized.  This is called
   the synchronization distance.

   Again drawing from the experience of the telephone industry, who
   learned such lessons at considerable cost, the synchronization paths
   should be organized to produce the highest accuracies, but must never
   be allowed to form a loop.  The clock filter and selection algorithms
   used in NTP accomplish this by using a variant of the Bellman-Ford
   distributed routing algorithm [29] to compute the minimum-weight
   spanning trees rooted on the primary servers.  This results in each
   server operating at the lowest stratum and, in case of multiple peers
   at the same stratum, at the lowest synchronization distance.

   As a result of the above design, the subnet reconfigures
   automatically in a hierarchical master-slave configuration to produce
   the most accurate time, even when one or more primary or secondary
   servers or the communication paths between them fail.  This includes
   the case where all normal primary servers (e.g.,  backbone WWVB
   clocks) on a possibly partitioned subnet fail, but one or more backup
   primary servers (e.g., local WWV clocks) continue operation.
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 10
   However, should all primary servers throughout the subnet fail, the
   remaining secondary servers will synchronize among themselves for
   some time and then gradually drop off the subnet and coast using
   their last offset and frequency computations.  Since these
   computations are expected to be very precise, especially in
   frequency, even extend outage periods of a day or more should result
   in timekeeping errors of not over a few tens of milliseconds.

   In the case of multiple primary servers, the spanning-tree
   computation will usually select the server at minimum synchronization
   distance.  However, when these servers are at approximately the same
   distance, the computation may result in random selections among them
   as the result of normal dispersive delays.  Ordinarily this does not
   degrade accuracy as long as any discrepancy between the primary
   servers is small compared to the synchronization distance.  If not,
   the filter and selection algorithms will select the best of the
   available servers and cast out outlyers as intended.

2.3.  Time Scales

   Since 1972 the various national time scales have been based on
   International Atomic Time (TA), which is currently maintained using
   multiple cesium-beam clocks to an accuracy of a few parts in 10^12.
   The Bureau International de l'Heure (BIH) uses astronomical
   observations provided by the US Naval Observatory and other
   observatories to determine corrections for small changes in the mean
   rotation period of the Earth.  This results in Universal Coordinated
   Time (UTC), which is presently decreasing from TA at a fraction of a
   second per year.  When the magnitude of the correction approaches 0.7
   second, a leap second is inserted or deleted in the UTC time scale on
   the last day of June or December.  Further information on time scales
   can be found in [26].

   For the most precise coordination and timestamping of events since
   1972 it is necessary to know when leap seconds were inserted or
   deleted in UTC and how the seconds are numbered.  A leap second is
   inserted following second 23:59:59 on the last day of June or
   December and becomes second 23:59:60 of that day.  A leap second
   would be deleted by omitting second 23:59:59 on one of these days,
   although this has never happened.  Leap seconds were inserted on the
   following fourteen occasions prior to January 1988 (courtesy US Naval
   Observatory):
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           1  June 1972                    8  December 1978
           2  December 1972                9  December 1979
           3  December 1973                10 June 1981
           4  December 1974                11 June 1982
           5  December 1975                12 June 1983
           6  December 1976                13 June 1985
           7  December 1977                14 December 1987

                 Table 2.1. Dates of Leap-Second Insertion

   Like UTC, NTP operates with an abstract oscillator synchronized in
   frequency to the TA time scale.  At 0000 hours on 1 January 1972 the
   NTP time scale was set to 2,272,060,800, representing the number of
   TA seconds since 0000 hours on 1 January 1900.  The insertion of leap
   seconds in UTC does not affect the oscillator itself, only the
   translation between TA and UTC, or conventional civil time.  However,
   since the only institutional memory assumed by NTP is the UTC radio
   broadcast service, the NTP time scale is in effect reset to UTC as
   each offset estimate is computed.  When a leap second is inserted in
   UTC and subsequently in NTP, knowledge of all previous leap seconds
   is lost.  Thus, if a clock synchronized to NTP in early 1988 was used
   to establish the time of an event that occured in early 1972, it
   would be fourteen seconds early.

   When NTP is used to measure intervals between events that straddle a
   leap second, special considerations apply.  When it is necessary to
   determine the elapsed time between events, such as the half life of a
   proton, NTP timestamps of these events can be used directly.  When it
   is necessary to establish the order of events relative to UTC, such
   as the order of funds transfers, NTP timestamps can also be used
   directly; however, if it is necessary to establish the elapsed time
   between events relative to UTC, such as the intervals between
   payments on a mortgage, NTP timestamps must be converted to UTC using
   the above table and its successors.

   The current formats used by NBS radio broadcast services [2] do not
   include provisions for advance notice of leap seconds, so this
   information must be determined from other sources.  NTP includes
   provisions to distribute advance warnings of leap seconds using the
   Leap Indicator bits described in Section 3.  The protocol is designed
   so that these bits can be set manually at the primary clocks and then
   automatically distributed throughout the system for delivery to all
   logical clocks and then effected as described in Section 5.
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3.  Network Time Protocol

   This section consists of a formal definition of the Network Time
   Protocol, including its data formats, entities, state variables,
   events and event-processing procedures.  The specification model is
   based on the implementation model illustrated in Figure 2.1, but it
   is not intended that this model is the only one upon which a
   specification can be based.  In particular, the specification is
   intended to illustrate and clarify the intrinsic operations of NTP
   and serve as a foundation for a more rigorous, comprehensive and
   verifiable specification.

3.1.  Data Formats

   All mathematical operations expressed or implied herein are in
   two's-complement arithmetic.  Data are specified as integer or
   fixed-point quantities.  Since various implementations would be
   expected to scale externally derived quantities for internal use,
   neither the precision nor decimal-point placement for fixed-point
   quantities is specified.  Unless specified otherwise, all quantities
   are unsigned and may occupy the full field width, if designated, with
   an implied zero preceding the most significant (leftmost) bit.
   Hardware and software packages designed to work with signed
   quantities will thus yield surprising results when the most
   significant (sign) bit is set.  It is suggested that externally
   derived, unsigned fixed-point quantities such as timestamps be
   shifted right one bit for internal use, since the precision
   represented by the full field width is seldom justified.

   Since NTP timestamps are cherished data and, in fact, represent the
   main product of the protocol, a special timestamp format has been
   established.  NTP timestamps are represented as a 64-bit unsigned
   fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0000 UT on 1 January 1900.
   The integer part is in the first 32 bits and the fraction part in the
   last 32 bits, as shown in the following diagram.

      0                   1                   2                   3
      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                         Integer Part                          |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
     |                         Fraction Part                         |
     +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   This format allows convenient multiple-precision arithmetic and
   conversion to Time Protocol representation (seconds), but does
   complicate the conversion to ICMP Timestamp message representation
   (milliseconds).  The precision of this representation is about 0.2
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 13
   nanosecond, which should be adequate for even the most exotic
   requirements.

   Timestamps are determined by copying the current value of the logical
   clock to a timestamp variable when some significant event, such as
   the arrival of a message, occurs.  In order to maintain the highest
   accuracy, it is important that this be done as close to the hardware
   or software driver associated with the event as possible.  In
   particular, departure timestamps should be redetermined for each
   link-level retransmission.  In some cases a particular timestamp may
   not be available, such as when the host is rebooted or the protocol
   first starts up.  In these cases the 64-bit field is set to zero,
   indicating the value is invalid or undefined.

   Note that since some time in 1968 the most significant bit (bit 0 of
   the Integer Part) has been set and that the 64-bit field will
   overflow some time in 2036.  Should NTP be in use in 2036, some
   external means will be necessary to qualify time relative to 1900 and
   time relative to 2036 (and other multiples of 136 years).
   Timestamped data requiring such qualification will be so precious
   that appropriate means should be readily available.  There will exist
   an 0.2-nanosecond interval, henceforth ignored, every 136 years when
   the 64-bit field will be zero and thus considered invalid.

3.2.  State Variables and Parameters

   Following is a tabular summary of the various state variables and
   parameters used by the protocol.  They are separated into classes of
   system variables, which relate to the operating system environment
   and logical clock mechanism;  peer variables, which are specific to
   each peer operating in symmetric mode or client mode;  packet
   variables, which represent the contents of the NTP message;  and
   parameters, which are fixed in all implementations of the current
   version.  For each class the description of the variable is followed
   by its name and the procedure or value which controls it.  Note that
   variables are in lower case, while parameters are in upper case.
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 14
        System Variables                Name            Control
        -------------------------------------------------------
        Logical Clock                   sys.clock       update
        Clock Source                    sys.peer        selection
                                                        algorithm
        Leap Indicator                  sys.leap        update
        Stratum                         sys.stratum     update
        Precision                       sys.precision   system
        Synchronizing Distance          sys.distance    update
        Estimated Drift Rate            sys.drift       system
        Reference Clock Identifier      sys.refid       update
        Reference Timestamp             sys.reftime     update

                        Table 3.1. System Variables

        Peer Variables                  Name            Control
        -------------------------------------------------------
        Peer Address                    peer.srcadr     system
        Peer Port                       peer.srcport    system
        Local Address                   peer.dstadr     system
        Local Port                      peer.dstport    system
        Peer State                      peer.state      receive,
                                                        transmit
        Reachability Register           peer.reach      receive,
                                                        transmit
        Peer Timer                      peer.timer      system
        Timer Threshold                 peer.threshold  system
        Leap Indicator                  peer.leap       receive
        Stratum                         peer.stratum    receive
        Peer Poll Interval              peer.ppoll      receive
        Host Poll Interval              peer.hpoll      receive,
                                                        transmit
        Precision                       peer.precision  receive
        Synchronizing Distance          peer.distance   receive
        Estimated Drift Rate            peer.drift      receive
        Reference Clock Identifier      peer.refid      receive
        Reference Timestamp             peer.reftime    receive
        Originate Timestamp             peer.org        receive
        Receive Timestamp               peer.rec        receive
        Filter Register                 peer.filter     filter
                                                        algorithm
        Delay Estimate                  peer.delay      filter
                                                        algorithm
        Offset Estimate                 peer.offset     filter
                                                        algorithm
        Dispersion Estimate             peer.dispersion filter

                         Table 3.2. Peer Variables
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 15
        Packet Variables                Name            Control
        -------------------------------------------------------
        Peer Address                    pkt.srcadr      transmit
        Peer Port                       pkt.srcport     transmit
        Local Address                   pkt.dstadr      transmit
        Local Port                      pkt.dstport     transmit
        Leap Indicator                  pkt.leap        transmit
        Version Number                  pkt.version     transmit
        Stratum                         pkt.stratum     transmit
        Poll                            pkt.poll        transmit
        Precision                       pkt.precision   transmit
        Synchronizing Distance          pkt.distance    transmit
        Estimated Drift Rate            pkt.drift       transmit
        Reference Clock Identifier      pkt.refid       transmit
        Reference Timestamp             pkt.reftime     transmit
        Originate Timestamp             pkt.org         transmit
        Receive Timestamp               pkt.rec         transmit
        Transmit Timestamp              pkt.xmt         transmit

                        Table 3.3. Packet Variables

        Parameters                      Name            Value
        -------------------------------------------------------
        NTP Version                     NTP.VERSION     1
        NTP Port                        NTP.PORT        123
        Minimum Polling Interval        NTP.MINPOLL     6 (64 sec)
        Maximum Polling Interval        NTP.MAXPOLL     10 (1024
                                                        sec)
        Maximum Dispersion              NTP.MAXDISP     65535 ms
        Reachability Register Size      PEER.WINDOW     8
        Shift Register Size             PEER.SHIFT      4/8
        Dispersion Threshold            PEER.THRESHOLD  500 ms
        Filter Weight                   PEER.FILTER     .5
        Select Weight                   PEER.SELECT     .75

                           Table 3.4. Parameters

   Following is a description of the various variables used in the
   protocol.  Additional details on formats and use are presented in
   later sections and appendices.

3.2.1.  Common Variables

   The following variables are common to the system, peer and packet
   classes.

   Peer Address (peer.srcadr, pkt.srcadr) Peer Port (peer.srcport,
   pkt.srcport)
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 16
      These are the 32-bit Internet address and 16-bit port number of
      the remote host.

   Local Address (peer.dstadr, pkt.dstadr) Local Port (peer.dstport,
   pkt.dstport)

      These are the 32-bit Internet address and 16-bit port number of
      the local host.  They are included among the state variables to
      support multi-homing.

   Leap Indicator (sys.leap, peer.leap, pkt.leap)

      This is a two-bit code warning of an impending leap second to be
      inserted in the NTP time scale.  The bits are set before 23:59 on
      the day of insertion and reset after 00:01 on the following day.
      This causes the number of seconds (rollover interval) in the day
      of insertion to be increased or decreased by one.  In the case of
      primary servers the bits are set by operator intervention, while
      in the case of secondary servers the bits are set by the protocol.
      The two bits are coded as follows:

                   00      no warning (day has 86400 seconds)
                   01      +1 second (day has 86401 seconds)
                           seconds)
                   10      -1 second (day has 86399 seconds)
                           seconds)
                   11      alarm condition (clock not synchronized)

      In all except the alarm condition (11) NTP itself does nothing
      with these bits, except pass them on to the time-conversion
      routines that are not part of NTP.  The alarm condition occurs
      when, for whatever reason, the logical clock is not synchronized,
      such as when first coming up or after an extended period when no
      outside reference source is available.

   Stratum (sys.stratum, peer.stratum, pkt.stratum)

      This is an integer indicating the stratum of the logical clock.  A
      value of zero is interpreted as unspecified, one as a primary
      clock (synchronized by outside means) and remaining values as the
      stratum level (synchronized by NTP).  For comparison purposes a
      value of zero is considered greater than any other value.

   Peer Poll Interval (peer.ppoll, pkt.poll)

      This is a signed integer used only in symmetric mode and
      indicating the minimum interval between messages sent to the peer,
      in seconds as a power of two.  For instance, a value of six
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 17
      indicates a minimum interval of 64 seconds.  The value of this
      variable must not be less than NTP.MINPOLL and must not be greater
      than NTP.MAXPOLL.

   Precision (sys.precision, peer.precision, pkt.precision)

      This is a signed integer indicating the precision of the logical
      clock, in seconds to the nearest power of two.  For instance, a
      60-Hz line-frequency clock would be assigned the value -6, while a
      1000-Hz crystal-derived clock would be assigned the value -10.

   Synchronizing Distance (sys.distance, peer.distance, pkt.distance)

      This is a fixed-point number indicating the estimated roundtrip
      delay to the primary clock, in seconds.


   Estimated Drift Rate (sys.drift, peer.drift, pkt.drift)

      This is a fixed-point number indicating the estimated drift rate
      of the local clock, in dimensionless units.

   Reference Clock Identifier (sys.refid, peer.refid, pkt.refid)

      This is a code identifying the particular reference clock or
      server.  The interpretation of the value depends on the stratum.
      For stratum values of zero (unspecified) or one (primary clock),
      the value is an ASCII string identifying the reason or clock,
      respectively.  For stratum values greater than one (synchronized
      by NTP), the value is the 32-bit Internet address of the reference
      server.

   Reference Timestamp (sys.reftime, peer.reftime, pkt.reftime)

      This is the local time, in timestamp format, when the logical
      clock was last updated.  If the logical clock has never been
      synchronized, the value is zero.

3.2.2.  System Variables

   The following variables are used by the operating system in order to
   synchronize the logical clock.

   Logical Clock (sys.clock)

      This is the current local time, in timestamp format.  Local time
      is derived from the hardware clock of the particular machine and
      increments at intervals depending on the design used.  An
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 18
      appropriate design, including slewing and drift-compensation
      mechanisms, is described in Section 5.

   Clock Source (sys.peer)

      This is a selector identifying the current clock source.  Usually
      this will be a pointer to a structure containing the peer
      variables.

3.2.3.  Peer Variables

   Following is a list of state variables used by the peer management
   and measurement functions.  There is one set of these variables for
   every peer operating in client mode or symmetric mode.

   Peer State (peer.state)

      This is a bit-encoded quantity used for various control functions.

   Host Poll Interval (peer.hpoll)

      This is a signed integer used only in symmetric mode and
      indicating the minimum interval between messages expected from the
      peer, in seconds as a power of two.  For instance, a value of six
      indicates a minimum interval of 64 seconds.  The value of this
      variable must not be less than NTP.MINPOLL and must not be greater
      than NTP.MAXPOLL.

   Reachability Register (peer.reach)

      This is a code used to determine the reachability status of the
      peer.  It is used as a shift register, with bits entering from the
      least significant (rightmost) end.  The size of this register is
      specified as PEER.SHIFT bits.

   Peer Timer (peer.timer)

      This is an integer counter used to control the interval between
      transmitted NTP messages.

   Timer Threshold (peer.threshold)

      This is the timer value which, when reached, causes the timeout
      procedure to be executed.

   Originate Timestamp (peer.org, pkt.org)

      This is the local time, in timestamp format, at the peer when its
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 19
      latest NTP message was sent.  If the peer becomes unreachable the
      value is set to zero.

   Receive Timestamp (peer.rec, pkt.rec)

      This is the local time, in timestamp format, when the latest NTP
      message from the peer arrived.  If the peer becomes unreachable
      the value is set to zero.

3.2.4.  Packet Variables

   Following is a list of variables used in NTP messages in addition to
   the common variables above.

   Version Number (pkt.version)

      This is an integer indicating the version number of the sender.
      NTP messages will always be sent with the current version number
      NTP.VERSION and will always be accepted if the version number
      matches NTP.VERSION.  Exceptions may be advised on a case-by-case
      basis at times when the version number is changed.

   Transmit Timestamp (pkt.xmt)

      This is the local time, in timestamp format, at which the NTP
      message departed the sender.

3.2.5.  Clock Filter Variables

   When the filter and selection algorithms suggested in Section 4 are
   used, the following state variables are defined.  There is one set of
   these variables for every peer operating in client mode or symmetric
   mode.

   Filter Register (peer.filter)

      This is a shift register of PEER.WINDOW bits, where each stage is
      a tuple consisting of the measured delay concatenated with the
      measured offset associated with a single observation.
      Delay/offset observations enter from the least significant
      (rightmost) right and are shifted towards the most significant
      (leftmost) end and eventually discarded as new observations
      arrive.  The register is cleared to zeros when (a) the peer
      becomes unreachable or (b) the logical clock has just been reset
      so as to cause a significant discontinuity in local time.
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 20
   Delay Estimate (peer.delay)

      This is a signed, fixed-point number indicating the latest delay
      estimate output from the filter, in seconds.  While the number is
      signed, only those values greater than zero represent valid delay
      estimates.

   Offset Estimate (peer.offset)

      This is a signed, fixed-point number indicating the latest offset
      estimate output from the filter, in seconds.

   Dispersion Estimate (peer.dispersion)

      This is a fixed-point number indicating the latest dispersion
      estimate output from the filter, in scrambled units.

3.2.6.  Parameters

   Following is a list of parameters assumed for all implementations
   operating in the Internet system.  It is necessary to agree on the
   values for these parameters in order to avoid unnecessary network
   overheads and stable peer associations.

   Version Number (NTP.VERSION)

      This is the NTP version number, currently one (1).

   NTP Port (NTP.PORT)

      This is the port number (123) assigned by the Internet Number Czar
      to NTP.

   Minimum Polling Interval (NTP.MINPOLL)

      This is the minimum polling interval allowed by any peer of the
      Internet system, currently set to 6 (64 seconds).

   Maximum Polling Interval (NTP.MAXPOLL)

      This is the maximum polling interval allowed by any peer of the
      Internet system, currently set to 10 (1024 seconds).

   Maximum Dispersion (NTP.MAXDISP)

      This is the maximum dispersion assumed by the filter algorithms,
      currently set to 65535 milliseconds.
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 21
   Reachability Register Size (PEER.WINDOW)

      This is the size of the Reachability Register (peer.reach),
      currently set to eight (8) bits.

   Shift Register Size (PEER.SHIFT)

      When the filter and selection algorithms suggested in Section 4
      are used, this is the size of the Clock Filter (peer.filter) shift
      register, in bits.  For crystal-stabilized oscillators a value of
      eight (8) is suggested, while for mains-frequency oscillators a
      value of four (4) is suggested.  Additional considerations are
      given in Section 5.

   Dispersion Threshold (PEER.THRESHOLD)

      When the filter and selection algorithms suggested in Section 4
      are used, this is the threshold used to discard noisy data.  While
      a value of 500 milliseconds is suggested, the value may be changed
      to suit local conditions on particular peer paths.

   Filter Weight (PEER.FILTER)

      When the filter algorithm suggested in Section 4 is used, this is
      the filter weight used to discard noisy data.  While a value of
      0.5 is suggested, the value may be changed to suit local
      conditions on particular peer paths.

   Select Weight (PEER.SELECT)

      When the selection algorithm suggested in Section 4 is used, this
      is the select weight used to discard outlyers.  data.  While a
      value of 0.75 is suggested, the value may be changed to suit local
      conditions on particular peer paths.

3.3.  Modes of Operation

   An NTP host can operate in three modes:  client, server and
   symmetric.  The mode of operation is determined by whether the source
   port (peer.srcport) or destination port (peer.dstport) peer variables
   contain the assigned NTP service port number NTP.PORT (123) as shown
   in the following table.
ToP   noToC   RFC1059 - Page 22
           peer.srcport    peer.dstport    Mode
           -------------------------------------------
           not NTP.PORT    not NTP.PORT    not possible
           not NTP.PORT    NTP.PORT        server
           NTP.PORT        not NTP.PORT    client
           NTP.PORT        NTP.PORT        symmetric

   A host operating in client mode occasionally sends an NTP message to
   a host operating in server mode.  The server responds by simply
   interchanging addresses and ports, filling in the required
   information and returning the message to the client.  Servers then
   need retain no state information between client requests.  Clients
   are free to manage the intervals between sending NTP messages to suit
   local conditions.

   In symmetric mode the client/server distinction disappears.  Each
   host maintains a table with as many entries as active peers.  Each
   entry includes a code uniquely identifying the peer (e.g.,  Internet
   address and port), together with status information and a copy of the
   timestamps last received.  A host operating in symmetric mode
   periodically sends NTP messages to each peer including the latest
   copy of the timestamps.  The intervals between sending NTP messages
   are managed jointly by the host and each peer using the polling
   variables peer.ppoll and peer.hpoll.

   When a pair of peers operating in symmetric mode exchange NTP
   messages and each determines that the other is reachable, an
   association is formed.  One or both peers must be in active state;
   that is, sending messages to the other regardless of reachability
   status.  A peer not in active state is in passive state.  If a peer
   operating in passive state discovers that the other peer is no longer
   reachable, it ceases sending messages and reclaims the storage and
   timer resources used by the association.  A peer operating in client
   mode is always in active state, while a peer operating in server mode
   is always in passive state.



(page 22 continued on part 2)

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