freebsd-src/contrib/ntp/html/refclock.htm
2001-08-29 14:35:15 +00:00

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<h3>Reference Clock Drivers</h3>
<img align="left" src="pic/stack1a.jpg" alt="gif">Master Time
Facility at the <a href="http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/lab.htm">
UDel Internet Research Laboratory</a>: <br clear="left">
<hr>
<p>Support for most of the commonly available radio and modem
reference clocks is included in the default configuration of the
NTP daemon for Unix <tt>ntpd</tt>. Individual clocks can be
activated by configuration file commands, specifically the <tt>
server</tt> and <tt>fudge</tt> commands described in the <a href=
"ntpd.htm"><tt>ntpd</tt> program manual page</a>. The following
discussion presents Information on how to select and configure the
device drivers in a running Unix system.</p>
<p>Many radio reference clocks can be set to display local time as
adjusted for timezone and daylight saving mode. For use with NTP
the clock must be set for Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) only.
Ordinarily, these adjustments are performed by the kernel, so the
fact that the clock runs on UTC will be transparent to the
user.</p>
<p>Radio and modem clocks by convention have addresses in the form
127.127.<i>t.u</i>, where <i>t</i> is the clock type and <i>u</i>
is a unit number in the range 0-3 used to distinguish multiple
instances of clocks of the same type. Most of these clocks require
support in the form of a serial port or special bus peripheral, but
some can work directly from the audio codec found in some
workstations. The particular device is normally specified by adding
a soft link <tt>/dev/device<i>u</i></tt> to the particular hardware
device involved, where <i><tt>u</tt></i> correspond to the unit
number above.</p>
<p>Most clock drivers communicate with the reference clock using a
serial port, usually at 9600 bps. There are several application
program interfaces (API) used in the various Unix and NT systems,
most of which can be detected at configuration time. Thus, it is
important that the NTP daemon and utilities be compiled on the
target system or clone. In some cases special features are
available, such as timestamping in the kernel or pulse-per-second
(PPS) interface. In most cases these features can be detected at
configuration time as well; however, the kernel may have to be
recompiled in order for them to work.</p>
<p>The audio drivers are a special case. These include support for
the NIST time/frequency stations WWV and WWVH, the Canadian
time/frequency station CHU and generic IRIG signals. Currently,
support for the Solaris and SunOS audio API is included in the
distribution. It is left to the volunteer corps to extend this
support to other systems. Further information on hookup, debugging
and monitoring is given in the <a href="audio.htm">Audio
Drivers</a> page.</p>
<p>The local clock driver is also a special case. A server
configured with this driver can operate as a primary server to
synchronize other clients when no other external synchronization
sources are available. If the server is connected directly or
indirectly to the public Internet, there is some danger that it can
adversely affect the operation of unrelated clients. Carefully read
the <a href="driver1.htm">Undisciplined Local Clock</a> page and
respect the stratum limit.</p>
<p>The local clock driver also supports an external synchronization
source such as a high resolution counter disciplined by a GPS
receiver, for example. Further information is on the <a href=
"extern.htm">External Clock Discipline and the Local Clock
Driver</a> page.</p>
<h4>Driver Calibration</h4>
<p>Some drivers depending on longwave and shortwave radio services
need to know the radio propagation time from the transmitter to the
receiver, which can amount to some tens of milliseconds. This must
be calculated for each specific receiver location and requires the
geographic coordinates of both the transmitter and receiver. The
transmitter coordinates for various radio services are given in the
<a href="qth.htm">Stations, Frequencies and Geographic
Coordinates</a> page. Receiver coordinates can be obtained or
estimated from various sources. The actual calculations are beyond
the scope of this document.</p>
<p>When more than one clock driver is supported, it is often the
case that each shows small systematic offset differences relative
to the rest. To reduce the effects of jitter when switching from
one driver to the another, it is useful to calibrate the drivers to
a common ensemble offset. The <tt>enable calibrate</tt>
configuration command in the <a href="miscopt.htm">Miscellaneous
Options</a> page is useful for this purpose. The calibration
function can also be enabled and disabled using the <tt>ntpdc</tt>
program utility.</p>
<p>Most clock drivers use the <tt>time1</tt> value specified in the
<tt>fudge</tt> configuration command to provide the calibration
correction when this cannot be provided by the clock or interface.
When the calibration function is enabled, the <tt>time1</tt> value
is automatically adjusted to match the offset of the remote server
or local clock driver selected for synchronization. Ordinarily, the
NTP selection algorithm chooses the best from among all sources,
usually the best radio clock determined on the basis of stratum,
synchronization distance and jitter. The calibration function
adjusts the <tt>time1</tt> values for all clock drivers except this
source so that their indicated offsets tend to zero. If the
selected source is the kernel PPS discipline, the <tt>fudge
time1</tt> values for all clock drivers are adjusted.</p>
<p>The adjustment function is an exponential average designed to
improve accuracy, so the function takes some time to converge. The
recommended procedure is to enable the function, let it run for an
hour or so, then edit the configuration file using the <tt>
time1</tt> values displayed by the <tt>ntpq</tt> utility and <tt>
clockvar</tt> command. Finally, disable the calibration function to
avoid possible future disruptions due to misbehaving clocks or
drivers.</p>
<h4>Performance Enhancements</h4>
<p>In general, performance can be improved, especially when more
than one clock driver is supported, to use the prefer peer function
described in the <a href="prefer.htm">Mitigation Rules and the <tt>
prefer</tt> Keyword</a> page. The prefer peer is ordinarily
designated the remote peer or local clock driver which provides the
best quality time. All other things equal, only the prefer peer
source is used to discipline the system clock and jitter-producing
"clockhopping" between sources is avoided. This is valuable when
more than one clock driver is present and especially valuable when
the PPS clock driver (type 22) is used. Support for PPS signals is
summarized in the <a href="pps.htm">Pulse-per-second (PPS) Signal
Interfacing</a> page.</p>
<p>Where the highest performance is required, generally better than
one millisecond, additional hardware and/or software functions may
be required. Kernel modifications for precision time are described
in the <a href="kern.htm">A Kernel Model for Precision
Timekeeping</a> page. Special line discipline and streams modules
for use in capturing precision timestamps are described in the <a
href="ldisc.htm">Line Disciplines and Streams Drivers</a> page.</p>
<h4>Comprehensive List of Clock Drivers</h4>
<p>Following is a list showing the type and title of each driver
currently implemented. The compile-time identifier for each is
shown in parentheses. Click on a selected type for specific
description and configuration documentation, including the clock
address, reference ID, driver ID, device name and serial line
speed, and features (line disciplines, etc.). For those drivers
without specific documentation, please contact the author listed in
the <a href="copyright.htm">Copyright Notice</a> page.</p>
<p><a href="driver1.htm">Type 1</a> Undisciplined Local Clock
(<tt>LOCAL</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver2.htm">Type 2</a> Trak 8820 GPS Receiver
(<tt>GPS_TRAK</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver3.htm">Type 3</a> PSTI/Traconex 1020 WWV/WWVH
Receiver (<tt>WWV_PST</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver4.htm">Type 4</a> Spectracom WWVB and GPS Receivers
(<tt>WWVB_SPEC</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver5.htm">Type 5</a> TrueTime GPS/GOES/OMEGA Receivers
(<tt>TRUETIME</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver6.htm">Type 6</a> IRIG Audio Decoder
(<tt>IRIG_AUDIO</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver7.htm">Type 7</a> Radio CHU Audio
Demodulator/Decoder (<tt>CHU</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver8.htm">Type 8</a> Generic Reference Driver
(<tt>PARSE</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver9.htm">Type 9</a> Magnavox MX4200 GPS Receiver
(<tt>GPS_MX4200</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver10.htm">Type 10</a> Austron 2200A/2201A GPS
Receivers (<tt>GPS_AS2201</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver11.htm">Type 11</a> Arbiter 1088A/B GPS Receiver
(<tt>GPS_ARBITER</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver12.htm">Type 12</a> KSI/Odetics TPRO/S IRIG
Interface (<tt>IRIG_TPRO</tt>)<br>
Type 13 Leitch CSD 5300 Master Clock Controller
(<tt>ATOM_LEITCH</tt>)<br>
Type 14 EES M201 MSF Receiver (<tt>MSF_EES</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver5.htm">Type 15</a> * TrueTime generic receivers<br>
<a href="driver16">Type 16</a> Bancomm GPS/IRIG Receiver
(<tt>GPS_BANCOMM</tt>)<br>
Type 17 Datum Precision Time System (<tt>GPS_DATUM</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver18.htm">Type 18</a> NIST Modem Time Service
(<tt>ACTS_NIST</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver19.htm">Type 19</a> Heath WWV/WWVH Receiver
(<tt>WWV_HEATH</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver20.htm">Type 20</a> Generic NMEA GPS Receiver
(<tt>NMEA</tt>)<br>
Type 21 TrueTime GPS-VME Interface (<tt>GPS_VME</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver22.htm">Type 22</a> PPS Clock Discipline
(<tt>PPS</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver23.htm">Type 23</a> PTB Modem Time Service
(<tt>ACTS_PTB</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver24.htm">Type 24</a> USNO Modem Time Service
(<tt>ACTS_USNO</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver5.htm">Type 25</a> * TrueTime generic receivers<br>
<a href="driver26.htm">Type 26</a> Hewlett Packard 58503A GPS
Receiver (<tt>GPS_HP</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver27.htm">Type 27</a> Arcron MSF Receiver
(<tt>MSF_ARCRON</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver28.htm">Type 28</a> Shared Memory Driver
(<tt>SHM</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver29.htm">Type 29</a> Trimble Navigation Palisade GPS
(<tt>GPS_PALISADE</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver30.htm">Type 30</a> Motorola UT Oncore GPS
(<tt>GPS_ONCORE</tt>)<br>
Type 31 Rockwell Jupiter GPS (<tt>GPS_JUPITER</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver32.htm">Type 32</a> Chrono-log K-series WWVB
receiver <a href="driver33.htm">Type 33</a> Dumb Clock <a href=
"driver34.htm">Type 34</a> Ultralink WWVB Receivers<br>
<a href="driver35.htm">Type 35</a> Conrad Parallel Port Radio Clock
(<tt>PCF</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver36.htm">Type 36</a> Radio WWV/H Audio
Demodulator/Decoder(<tt>WWV</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver37.htm">Type 37</a> Forum Graphic GPS Dating station
(<tt>FG</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver38.htm">Type 38</a> hopf GPS/DCF77 6021/komp for
Serial Line (<tt>HOPF_S</tt>)<br>
<a href="driver39.htm">Type 39</a> hopf GPS/DCF77 6039 for PCI-Bus
(<tt>HOPF_P</tt>)</p>
<p>* All TrueTime receivers are now supported by one driver, type
5. Types 15 and 25 will be retained only for a limited time and may
be reassigned in future.</p>
<p>Additional Information</p>
<p><a href="prefer.htm">Mitigation Rules and the <tt>prefer</tt>
Keyword</a><br>
<a href="rdebug.htm">Debugging Hints for Reference Clock
Drivers</a><br>
<a href="kern.htm">A Kernel Model for Precision Timekeeping</a><br>
<a href="ldisc.htm">Line Disciplines and Streams Drivers</a><br>
<a href="audio.htm">Reference Clock Audio Drivers</a><br>
<a href="pps.htm">Pulse-per-second (PPS) Signal Interfacing</a><br>
<a href="howto.htm">How To Write a Reference Clock Driver</a></p>
<hr>
<a href="index.htm"><img align="left" src="pic/home.gif" alt=
"gif"></a>
<address><a href="mailto:mills@udel.edu">David L. Mills
&lt;mills@udel.edu&gt;</a></address>
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