Usage analysis of a national internet time service

Published

March 8, 2016

Author(s)

Jeffrey A. Sherman, Judah Levine

Abstract

The Internet Time Service (ITS) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) currently receives over 12 billion time requests per day. ITS servers derive their system time from the NIST atomic-referenced timescale and distribute it freely to the public. Here we explore detailed ITS usage patterns discovered by analysis of inbound network traffic. For example, over a period of four weeks, just two of the approximately twenty ITS servers received requests from 316 million unique Internet Protocol (IPv4) addresses, which is at least 8.5% of the entire Internet. We offer recommendations for providers and consumers of network time services.

Citation

Journal of Research (NIST JRES) -

NIST Pub Series

Journal of Research (NIST JRES)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Keywords

internet time service, network time protocol (NTP), time transfer

Citation

Sherman, J. and Levine, J. (2016), Usage analysis of a national internet time service, Journal of Research (NIST JRES), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD (Accessed October 11, 2025)