nanog mailing list archives
Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server
From: John Todd <jtodd () loligo com>
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2002 23:57:39 -0400
Hmm... $2400 is still in the "pricey" range to be throwing out bunches of these across a network in wide distribution. (Pardon me if some of you on the list snicker at my reluctance at the $2400 price - for some of us the "new, new Econcomy" is making things like NTP Stratum 1 clocks a luxury that The Budgeters doesn't see as necessary, since it's an invisible engineering issue.)
One would think that a vendor could come up with a 1u rackmount box with a GPS and single-board computer (BSD or Linux-based) for ~$500 total cost. Add 150% for profit and distribution costs, you're still in the $1300 range, which is more reasonable. I suppose my oversimplification is the reason I'm not in the hardware business. I'd be even happier with a PCI-bus card that I could put into an old (reasonably fast) PC and a CD-ROM with an OpenBSD distribution that automatically did the Right Thing. There is a case to be made about off-the-shelf PC hardware not being accurate enough to handle a true Stratum-1 clock, and that is a valid point. However, if I can get within .5ms, I'm happy since most of my applications don't require anything more accurate than that. (Those of you timing T1's should use the more expensive systems.)
I will go out on a limb and say that a reduction in the cost of stratum-1 servers will increase their use across the Internet. The results of such an increase would be arguably visible, as the current multi-layer timekeeping system seems to be more-or-less keeping clocks correct to the point of usefulness, at least from a layer-4-and-up standpoint. However, accuracy and self-determination for timing are probably things that most organizations would consider "good" by self-evidence, and the lower the price the more possible things become to implement. Perhaps there are reasons that putting stratum-1 clocks in many, many places is sub-optimal; I leave that for others to illuminate.
I know that I would like to not rely on POP-external network connections to keep my clock sources accurate, but these prices (while very inexpensive, compared to other stratum-1 sources I have seen) are still outside the "put-one-in-every-POP" price.
JT At 9:48 AM -0700 8/27/02, Mike Lyon wrote:
Here is your base pricing from Truetime: NTS-150 $2395 NTS-200 $3595 -Mike On Tue, 27 Aug 2002, John Todd wrote:Happen to know what the base price is for these? "Low price" is a relative term when dealing with clock makers. :) JT >http://www.truetime.com/index.html > >Not exactly "stand alone" because you have to place the antenna somwhere >where it can see the GPS satellites as is the case with any any Stratum 1 >NTP device. Then you have to program the IP into it and plug the ethernet >into it. They are really simple to install and configure. They give you a >certain amount of Coax (you can order more if need be) and you put the >antenna on the roof and run it down to the receiver. Quite simple. > >They have a couple different models to choose from. > >-Mike > > > >On Mon, 26 Aug 2002, Mike Leber wrote: > >> >> >> I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions for a low priced, off the>> shelf, complete (includes any necessary receivers), standalone (as in you>> just plug it in and connect ethernet), stratum 1 NTP server? >> >> Please also mention where to buy it. >> >> Mike. >>>> +----------------- H U R R I C A N E - E L E C T R I C -----------------+ >> | Mike Leber Direct Internet Connections Voice 510 580 4100 | >> | Hurricane Electric Web Hosting Colocation Fax 510 580 4151 | >> | mleber () he net http://www.he.net | > > +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+> >-- ///////////////////////////////////////// - Mike Lyon - - Studio Engineer - - KKUP Public Radio, Cupertino, Ca - - Cell: 408-621-4826 - - www.fitzharris.com/~mlyon - /////////////////////////////////////////
Current thread:
- Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Mike Leber (Aug 26)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Mike Lyon (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Karsten W. Rohrbach (Aug 27)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server CARL . P . HIRSCH (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Mike Lyon (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server John Todd (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server bmanning (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Majdi S. Abbas (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server David G. Andersen (Aug 27)
- Message not available
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server David G. Andersen (Aug 28)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server John Todd (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Mike Lyon (Aug 27)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Randy Bush (Aug 28)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Robert E. Seastrom (Aug 28)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Majdi S. Abbas (Aug 28)
- Re: Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server Johannes Ullrich (Aug 28)