Standalone Stratum 1 NTP Server

Wed Aug 28 03:57:39 UTC 2002

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 at he.net 
>>http://www.he.net |
>>  >  > 
>>+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
>>  >  >
>>
>
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