The atomic clock and NTP Time Server

Many people have heard of atomic clocks, the accuracy and precision are well known. An atomic clock is able to keep time for hundreds of millions of years and not miss a second adrift. Drift is the process where the clocks lose or gain time because of inaccuracies in the mechanisms that operate them.

Mechanical watches, for example, have existed for hundreds of years, but also the most expensive and well designed will derive at least a second a day. While electronic watches are more accurate motion will also be about one second per week.

Atomic clocks can suffer no comparison when it comes to time. Due to an atomic clock is based on the oscillation of an atom (in most cases, the atom of cesium 133), which resonates perfectly accomplished (cesium is 9,192,631,770 times per second) which makes precision of a billionth of a second (one nanosecond).

Although this type of unprecedented accuracy has made possible the technologies and innovations that have changed the world. Satellite communication is possible only by time keeping atomic clocks, so the satellite navigation. As the speed of light (and therefore radio waves) to travel over 300,000 miles per second a few seconds of inaccuracy can see a navigation system of hundred thousand miles.

Offering precision is essential for many modern applications. World of communications, in particular, financial transactions must be done accurately. On Wall Street or the London Stock Exchange, a second, you can see the value of stock rise or fall by millions of people. Booking online also requires precision and perfect timing, as the atomic clocks can also provide the tickets may be sold several times and ATMs may end up paying two times his salary if you have found a distributor tickets with a slow clock.

Although this may seem desirable, the more dishonest of us, doesn, AOT much imagination to understand that the problems of lack of precision and timing can cause. For this reason, an international calendar based on the time told by atomic clocks has been developed.

UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is the same everywhere and can explain the slowing of the Earth, the rotation of free radicals by adding leap seconds, as UTC time in line with GMT (Greenwich Meantime). All computer networks that are involved in the global communications network must be synchronized with UTC. Because the UTC is based on the time told by atomic clocks, is as accurate as possible. For a network of computers
receive and keep synchronized with the UTC must first access an atomic clock. Are expensive and large equipment and are usually only found in a physics laboratory scale.

Fortunately, time has told these clocks can still be received from a time server using fade in time and frequency long wave broadcasts issued by the national physics laboratories or GPS (Global Positioning System). NTP (Network Time Protocol) can then distribute this UTC time to the network and use the time signal to maintain all network devices in sync with UTC.