It is arranged to ensure that at least 4 satellites is visible from almost any location on Earth.Įach satellite has an atomic clock, accurate to one second in 300 million years, which is synchronized to a master atomic clock located in a base station on Earth. The system consists of a constellation of 24 satellites in Medium Earth Orbit. The GPS system is US military owned and maintained. It is widely used in vehicle and marine satellite-navigation systems to provide location information. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite based system that provides positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services. GPS receivers can also have a high sensitivity mode which, in some circumstances, allows an antenna to be located inside a building with no line of sight to the sky. This allows an antenna to be positioned in a window or on the side of a building, saving on installation costs. Many GPS timing receivers operate down to a single satellite in view. Ideally, a GPS antenna should be located where it has clear unobstructed view of the sky, such as a rooftop. The antenna is usually separate and connected to the receiver using a coax cable. The receiver is generally integrated into the equipment. GPS Time Server HardwareĮquipment can receive GPS time and positioning information by using an antenna and receiver. This provides a traceable record of the order of events as they occurred. Large institutions providing financial services and trading use GPS to very precisely time-stamp transactions. For example, weather stations located in different parts of a country require synchronized instrumentation in order to accurate track weather systems. Equipment that may be located very far apart may require synchronization in order to act on or monitor linked events. Instrumentation often relies on accurate time. This allows them to locate a power line break by analyzing the exact time of a fault as it propagates through the electrical grid. Power companies are placing GPS NTP time servers in power plants and substations. Lower cost hardware has also led to new and innovative applications. The availability of free-to-air atomic time has led to huge cost savings for companies and applications that rely on precise time. Transaction processing, financial trading, data logging, machine monitoring and many other applications all rely on time synchronization. Precise time is critical to many applications and activities. Applications such as data-logging, monitoring and control all rely on accurate time to function properly. A collection of computers initially synchronized to the same time, will have significantly differing times after a relatively short period of time.Ĭomputers clocks need to be synchronized, so that events occur in an organized, predetermined manner.įor many organizations, such as financial institutions, media companies, security and military, computer clock synchronization is crucial. Like clocks and watches, a computers time drifts, often by significant amounts. They use low-cost crystal oscillators, identical to the components found in every-day clocks and watches. Why are GPS NTP Servers and Computer Clock Synchronization Important?Ĭomputers have real-time clocks to provide the current time to running applications. Many other network devices, such as CCTV cameras, digital video recorders (DVR) and telephone systems can also often be configured to coordinate their clocks using NTP. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is used to transfer time to servers, workstations and network devices, such as routers and switches.Īny hardware device that utilizes NTP or SNTP can be synchronized. Coordinates computer clocks to within a few milliseconds of UTC.Communicates using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), port 123. Much more accurate and secure than internet NTP servers.
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