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Building a Stratum 1 GPS NTP Server

By David Evans

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 01Sep2007
Word count: 421
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The Network Time Protocol (NTP) was developed to provide a way of synchronising Internet clients to an accurate network time reference. NTP allows the time on client computers to be set to within a fraction of the correct time. The NTP protocol is a suite of programs designed specifically for time synchronisation purposes. The application source code is freely downloadable from the NTP website. Originally developed for the Linux operating system, NTP has since been ported to Microsoft Windows platforms.

By interfacing an accurate reference clock to the NTP software distribution, you can provide a stratum 1 NTP server. This article describes how to utilise a low-cost GPS receiver in combination with the NTP software distribution to provide an accurate stratum 1 NTP server timing reference.

The NTP source code can be obtained from the NTP website and must be compiled on the local machine. The distribution extracts to a working directory where simple configuration and compilation scripts are available to install the software. Many Linux distributions provide pre-installed versions of the software. In order to configure a stratum 1 NTP server an accurate reference clock is required. The NTP software provides a large number of reference clock drivers that can be utilised to interface with a range of hardware timing references. Hardware timing references can generally be fairly expensive pieces of equipment. However, the popularity of GPS navigation devices has reduced the cost of GPS technology. Low-cost GPS receivers are now readily available from around $100. Many GPS receivers have a RS232 serial communications port, which can easily be connected to a PC. Most GPS receivers utilise the NMEA communications protocol which provides time and location information each second. The timing information can be utilised by the NTP software as an accurate timing reference to provide a stratum 1 NTP server.

The NTP software needs to be compiled with the NMEA reference clock driver to interface with the GPS receiver. Once compiled the application must be configured to utilise the correct serial port. On completion, the NTP software will provide a highly accurate stratum 1 NTP server resource.

Most computers such as Linux and Microsoft Windows servers and network devices such as routers and switches can synchronise time with a NTP server. Any device that has a NTP or SNTP client can be configured to obtain accurate time from a server. Generally, clients only need the IP address of the NTP server for synchronisation. With a NTP server, you can synchronise almost any device on your network.

Dave Evans is an experienced technical author in the field of computer network timing. For a number of years Dave has provided an authoring service to the telecommunications industry. Click here to find out more about NTP server systems.

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