Synchronizing Computer Clocks Using a Local Area Network

We have completed thefirst tests of a method to synchronize the clocks of networhd computers to the NIST time scale. The method uses a server computer to dkseminate the time to other clients on the same local-ureu network. The server is synchronized to NZST wing the ACTS protocol over a dial-up telephone line. The software in both the server and the clients comtructs a statistical model of the performance oJthe local clock and of the calibration chunnel, and the parameters of this model are used to adjust the time of the local clock and the interval between calibration requessts in a statktically optimum way. The algorithm marimizes the time between calibrations while at the same time keeping the time of the local clock correct within a spec@ed tokrance. The method can be extended to synchronize computers linked over wide-area networks, and an experiment to test the performance of the algorithms over such networh B being planned.