Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
I think I figured it out. " rootdisp=0" refers to "Root Dispersion" which is quite different from "Root Distance". They do look a little alike. One is the distance from the local clock to the root of the NTP tree and the other is something different, internal to NTP that is not exposed to a user. On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 6:12 PM, Paul wrote: > [I apologize in advance] > On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Chris Albertson > wrote: > > > Peole here have very much mis-understood the term "Root Distance". > > > I don't think Poul-Henning Kamp should be accused of misunderstanding NTP. > My question was answered (I wondered why I had a clock with rootdisp=0) so > I'll move on now. > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
[I apologize in advance] On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 7:47 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > Peole here have very much mis-understood the term "Root Distance". I don't think Poul-Henning Kamp should be accused of misunderstanding NTP. My question was answered (I wondered why I had a clock with rootdisp=0) so I'll move on now. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Tue, Mar 25, 2014 at 5:52 AM, Paul wrote: > On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 4:26 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > >> In message > em+9rvrbpggexnzztj...@mail.gmail.com> >> , Chris Albertson writes: >> >> >Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] >> >> And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. >> > > How do you calibrate root distance assuming that it's "one-half the > roundtrip root delay plus the root dispersion plus minor error > contributions not considered here"? Peole here have very much mis-understood the term "Root Distance". People don't calibrate it because It is NOT a user input. It is an internal variable that NTP uses. It is not something you can input.Perhaps people are confusing NTP's use of this term from the same term used in a different context? "root distance is equal to the root dispersion plus half the root delay" This is a DEFINTION. One does not calibrate a definition. These are measured values done in real-time. It has nothing to do with how one server connects to the others or how many source of time are used. It has noting to do wight eh number of network "hops" or if GPS or an uncalibrated source is used for time.All NTP cares about are the delay in round trip ping time and the variance in those times. I have seen NTP reject a local GPS receiver in favor on an Internet connected pool server because the very old handheld Garmin GPS had such poor timing. This is not uncommon with older nav receivers. Read how it is used here http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/cluster.html Read another definition of "root distance" here: http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/select.html -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
In message , Paul writes: >On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 4:26 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: >> And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. > >How do you calibrate root distance assuming that it's "one-half the >roundtrip root delay plus the root dispersion plus minor error >contributions not considered here"? You key in the number for the light-speed delay from whatever radio-transmitter you're listening to. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 4:26 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: > In message em+9rvrbpggexnzztj...@mail.gmail.com> > , Chris Albertson writes: > > >Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] > > And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. > How do you calibrate root distance assuming that it's "one-half the roundtrip root delay plus the root dispersion plus minor error contributions not considered here"? ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
In message , Harlan Stenn writes: >> I'm actually not certain that it helps, even if you document it. >> >> It's sort of an "administrative" distance and it unfairly penalizes >> any GNSS in favour of terrestial if you calibrate it according to the >> original intent... > >I'm game to come up with a better plan. Original intent is good, and >follow-on improvements are even better. Internal to NTPns I used a different scheme to pick refclock, each refclock got one vote for each independent source it had. This means that GPS almost always wins, since it has one vote for each sat not thrown out of the solution, whereas for instance DCF77 or WWVB would only get one vote, there being only one transmitter. Propagating something like that directly out of the S1 server is probably not sound, we don't want everybody to use the furthest server in TTL, just because it has a 24 channel GPS receiver. Likewise, NIST and USNO may have significantly more faith in their coax cable than the rest of us should have in over-the-air signals. So all in all, I'm not really sure what we can do automatically with the root dispersion at S1 level. At lower levels I think it works more or less as is should. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
"Poul-Henning Kamp" writes: > In message , Harlan Stenn writes: >>"Poul-Henning Kamp" writes: >>> In message >>> >>> , Chris Albertson writes: >>> Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] >>> >>> And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. >> >> http://bugs.ntp.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2587 >> >> Because I've forgotten to open a ticket on this too often for too long. > > I'm actually not certain that it helps, even if you document it. > > It's sort of an "administrative" distance and it unfairly penalizes > any GNSS in favour of terrestial if you calibrate it according to the > original intent... I'm game to come up with a better plan. Original intent is good, and follow-on improvements are even better. H ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
In message , Harlan Stenn writes: >"Poul-Henning Kamp" writes: >> In message > m> >> , Chris Albertson writes: >> >> >Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] >> >> And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. > >http://bugs.ntp.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2587 > >Because I've forgotten to open a ticket on this too often for too long. I'm actually not certain that it helps, even if you document it. It's sort of an "administrative" distance and it unfairly penalizes any GNSS in favour of terrestial if you calibrate it according to the original intent... -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
"Poul-Henning Kamp" writes: > In message m> > , Chris Albertson writes: > > >Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] > > And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. http://bugs.ntp.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2587 Because I've forgotten to open a ticket on this too often for too long. H ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On 3/23/14 10:48 AM, Paul wrote: On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Bob Camp wrote: I suspect that what NIST is looking for is somebody in the cloud business (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM) to step up and mention that they have 2,989,875 server racks scattered about the world and they would be happy to run NTP on them for "free". (see fine print attached ) There's no mention of compensation in the solicitation for input An RFI isn't a solicitation (an offer to buy). It's more the equivalent of mailing away for everyone's sales literature. If costs are mentioned in someone's response, that might help NIST figure out their cost/benefit and make vs buy analyses. For most RFIs, the responses are public. however they do want some things that might or might not fit the business models of the large server companies: -) Traceable time. 0) 180 day hold-over in the absence of GPS (presumably with less than a microsend error). 1) Dedicated (low-latency) links to the UTC(NIST) ensemble 2) Notable oversight by NIST. 3) Geo dispersion. Point three may seem a no-brainer but it disqualifies Amazon if they're using only native infrastructure. It sounds like they want what they should have gotten from Certichron/USTiming but didn't. I suspect the best candidates would be someone like Hurricane or Equinix with the Level3s in the second tier. Or, they might be looking for someone to be a system integrator, and put it all together. That's what an RFI is all about.. get the ideas from people who have them, so that when the solicitation does come out, they're looking to buy something that someone is willing to sell. It might also help them figure out what kind of budget they will need. Note well that you don't have to be a provider of services to respond to the RFI. If you have good ideas, but aren't able to implement them, for whatever reason (maybe you personally don't want to be running a business), you can still send them to NIST, and they'll factor into their decision making and planning process. When I've been involved in issuing RFIs in the past, often the best ideas come from people/firms who aren't in the business. The folks in the business are often loathe to publicly put their ideas out there, because they fear it will telegraph information to their competitors about future business plans. If you're not planning on competing, what do you care who knows about your ideas. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
In message , Chris Albertson writes: >Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" [...] And it is generally useless, because people don't calibrate it. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 11:50 PM, Hal Murray wrote: > > albertson.ch...@gmail.com said: > > The assumption NTP makes is that you can judge the quality of a server > by > > the variance (of "jitter") in the time it reports. > > I think it's more complicated than that. > > I think it also includes the non-jitter part of the round trip time. Yes. NTP calls it "root distance" which includes a jitter and delay component. I think (?) they project jitter and delay on a plane and compute the distance to a centroid and call that "root distance". But it does have both components as you say. I just re-read the docs. The point is that NTP's assumption that one way equals 1/2 the round trip if wrong causes some inaccuracy. I think you are right about a fixed offset. But if there are other clocks that are better they will cluster and the one with the asymmetry will be removed from the set that is used. The offset will cause it to be an out layer NTP is pretty good at detecting bad clocks if it has enough clocks to compare. I always like to use at least five. > NTP > assumes the path is symmetric. Any constant asymmetry will turn into an > apparent fixed offset. I think ntpd is smart enough to include that in > it's > calculations of the clock quality, but I don't understand the details. > > > -- > These are my opinions. I hate spam. > > > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
ja...@extremeoverclocking.com said: > If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or > even a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP servers to try and > pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a positive benefit on > better time transfer. The current ntp-dev is actually closer than you might expect. The pool command gets a bunch of servers via DNS. If one of them stops responding, it will get kicked out and replaced by another server. It's only SMOP to make it kick out the worst server every now and then. That should converge to at least N-1 good servers. (If you have N good ones, it will kick out the worse which might get replaced by a poor server. I suppose you could tweak the selection to require something like more than x% worse than the average or best or ... Simpler to ask for N+1 if you want N.) -- These are my opinions. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
albertson.ch...@gmail.com said: > The assumption NTP makes is that you can judge the quality of a server by > the variance (of "jitter") in the time it reports. I think it's more complicated than that. I think it also includes the non-jitter part of the round trip time. NTP assumes the path is symmetric. Any constant asymmetry will turn into an apparent fixed offset. I think ntpd is smart enough to include that in it's calculations of the clock quality, but I don't understand the details. -- These are my opinions. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
It's not really stratum based. The clock selection algorithm is described here http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/select.html Basically it "allows every clock that can logically contribute" That means with estimated error bounds that over lap. That with those not eliminated nTP applies a clustering algorithm to find the set of clocks that will contribute to the weighted average time http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/cluster.html The weight is not based on Stratum but it might turn out that many time it looks like it does simply because the servers using GPS or atomic clocks are very stable and get weighted up. The weight is 1/(root distance) where root distance is computed from offset and jitter. Do NOT look at the "billboard" display. It would have you think NTP picks just one clock. It rarely does that. The bottom line is that when setting up NTP you want to get it many clocks and let it pick. You might even get it two GPS receivers or GPS and a Rb derived PPS and then five pool servers as backup. On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 5:07 PM, Magnus Danielson < mag...@rubidium.dyndns.org> wrote: > Jason, > > On 23/03/14 17:26, Jason Rabel wrote: > >> NTP is best used over the Internet. It was designed for unreliable data >>> links. >>> >> >> In the quest for expansion of NTP over the internet, one thing has always >> nagged me. >> >> You can find lists of servers and they will give a physical location >> along with other info about them... >> >> Big whoop... Often these servers tend to be tied to one backbone, so even >> if they are physically located in the same city as me, the >> packets still might have to travel thousands of miles just to switch >> networks. So what should be a 2ms delay has now become 20-40ms >> (or more)... Even if they have multiple backbones, packets coming in are >> not guaranteed to leave on the same network. The more a >> packet has to travel, the more uncertainty you build up... Yes NTP should >> still get you a reasonable time, but our quest is always >> for something better. >> >> If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or >> even a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP >> servers to try and pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a >> positive benefit on better time transfer. >> > > This hits straight into one of the problems with NTP. It tries to use the > highest stratum clock rather than best quality clock. A known trick is to > use a set of stratum 2 servers locally and only let local users connect to > those, and them have them peer between each other and to the same stratum 1 > clocks. This gives much better performance then letting the clients to use > the stratum 1 servers directly. > > The hop-count is good to avoid routing loops, but it is not a good > indicator of achieved quality. > > If we have decent intermediary, this would provide much better > performance. As fewer would query the top servers, the second level could > query them much more often, and better filter the result for the benefit of > performance. > > But that would break the basic assumptions of NTP, and you can't do that, > not that the protocol would object. > > Your general idea is however sound, and surely you can do stuff with > scripts. > > Cheers, > Magnus > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/ > mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
Jason, On 23/03/14 17:26, Jason Rabel wrote: NTP is best used over the Internet. It was designed for unreliable data links. In the quest for expansion of NTP over the internet, one thing has always nagged me. You can find lists of servers and they will give a physical location along with other info about them... Big whoop... Often these servers tend to be tied to one backbone, so even if they are physically located in the same city as me, the packets still might have to travel thousands of miles just to switch networks. So what should be a 2ms delay has now become 20-40ms (or more)... Even if they have multiple backbones, packets coming in are not guaranteed to leave on the same network. The more a packet has to travel, the more uncertainty you build up... Yes NTP should still get you a reasonable time, but our quest is always for something better. If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or even a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP servers to try and pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a positive benefit on better time transfer. This hits straight into one of the problems with NTP. It tries to use the highest stratum clock rather than best quality clock. A known trick is to use a set of stratum 2 servers locally and only let local users connect to those, and them have them peer between each other and to the same stratum 1 clocks. This gives much better performance then letting the clients to use the stratum 1 servers directly. The hop-count is good to avoid routing loops, but it is not a good indicator of achieved quality. If we have decent intermediary, this would provide much better performance. As fewer would query the top servers, the second level could query them much more often, and better filter the result for the benefit of performance. But that would break the basic assumptions of NTP, and you can't do that, not that the protocol would object. Your general idea is however sound, and surely you can do stuff with scripts. Cheers, Magnus ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 1:37 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > Yes. If you modify NTP so that is does the same thing as PTP then it > will as good as PTP. That should be obvious. > I believe you misunderstand my point. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 1:08 PM, Bob Camp wrote: > I suspect that what NIST is looking for is somebody in the cloud business > (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM) to step up and mention that they have > 2,989,875 server racks scattered about the world and they would be happy to > run NTP on them for "free". (see fine print attached ) There's no mention of compensation in the solicitation for input however they do want some things that might or might not fit the business models of the large server companies: -) Traceable time. 0) 180 day hold-over in the absence of GPS (presumably with less than a microsend error). 1) Dedicated (low-latency) links to the UTC(NIST) ensemble 2) Notable oversight by NIST. 3) Geo dispersion. Point three may seem a no-brainer but it disqualifies Amazon if they're using only native infrastructure. It sounds like they want what they should have gotten from Certichron/USTiming but didn't. I suspect the best candidates would be someone like Hurricane or Equinix with the Level3s in the second tier. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 6:34 PM, Paul wrote: > E.g. FSM says their NTP+PTP "servers" perform equally well using either > protocol. The trick is to use optimized NTP software and timestamping > hardware. Yes. If you modify NTP so that is does the same thing as PTP then it will as good as PTP. That should be obvious. NTP is modular and it is easy to write a new reference clock driver. So if I had time stamping network hardware, I'd want an NTP driver for it and would use it. But most network hardware lacks the feature. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 9:26 AM, Jason Rabel wrote: > If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or even > a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP > servers to try and pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a > positive benefit on better time transfer. Yes. This is exactly how NTP works. It constantly tests the servers and selects the "best" subset of available reference clocks. This will changes over time and it will change in real time. There is a rather complex algorithm. First the set of clocks is thinned down to what the code calls "true tickers", those are the clocks the generally agree with the rest of the clocks. Then from the clocks who are not "voted off the island" so to speak the time is computed using a kind of weighting. The assumption NTP makes is that you can judge the quality of a server by the variance (of "jitter") in the time it reports. So yes, the problem the problem and the solution you thought of was build into NTP about 30 years ago. It fact that is the whole point of it's being, to estimate the variance in round trip point times and use this to determine how much to weight the results. NOW, the key assumption NTP makes might be wrong and this is a large source of error. It assumes the one-way jitter is 1/2 the round trip jitter. If this is wrong it would give incorrect weight to a server. NTP will eventually settle on the best few servers it finds but continues to talk to all of them just because which are the "best" will change over time. A good example of this is a stratum 1 server that has a GPS connected. Almost certainly it will also connect to other NTP servers and get time from them as well as the GPS. Very quickly it will determine that the GPS has the "best" performance and will use that. But if you disconnect the GPS antenna it will very quickly find the next best source(s) of time. Another example is an "island network". Say you have five NTP servers that are interconnected so that they each get time from the other four. Normally they also use some Internet servers but when the Internet goes down NTP will find which of the local island servers has the most stable clock and those will cary the most weight in the calculation of "consensus time" which is a weighted time based on all "true tickers". -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
Hi You can (and many do) run through a list of servers with an NTP client and see what you get. It’s a bit of work, but you only do it once. ——— I suspect that what NIST is looking for is somebody in the cloud business (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM) to step up and mention that they have 2,989,875 server racks scattered about the world and they would be happy to run NTP on them for “free”. (see fine print attached ….) Bob On Mar 23, 2014, at 12:26 PM, Jason Rabel wrote: >> NTP is best used over the Internet. It was designed for unreliable data >> links. > > In the quest for expansion of NTP over the internet, one thing has always > nagged me. > > You can find lists of servers and they will give a physical location along > with other info about them... > > Big whoop... Often these servers tend to be tied to one backbone, so even if > they are physically located in the same city as me, the > packets still might have to travel thousands of miles just to switch > networks. So what should be a 2ms delay has now become 20-40ms > (or more)... Even if they have multiple backbones, packets coming in are not > guaranteed to leave on the same network. The more a > packet has to travel, the more uncertainty you build up... Yes NTP should > still get you a reasonable time, but our quest is always > for something better. > > If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or even > a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP > servers to try and pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a > positive benefit on better time transfer. > > > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
> NTP is best used over the Internet. It was designed for unreliable data links. In the quest for expansion of NTP over the internet, one thing has always nagged me. You can find lists of servers and they will give a physical location along with other info about them... Big whoop... Often these servers tend to be tied to one backbone, so even if they are physically located in the same city as me, the packets still might have to travel thousands of miles just to switch networks. So what should be a 2ms delay has now become 20-40ms (or more)... Even if they have multiple backbones, packets coming in are not guaranteed to leave on the same network. The more a packet has to travel, the more uncertainty you build up... Yes NTP should still get you a reasonable time, but our quest is always for something better. If there was some sort of feature in NTP (maybe there already is???), or even a separate program that could "test" a list of NTP servers to try and pick the lowest latency, I think that could have a positive benefit on better time transfer. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 6:55 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > But as I wrote before if you are on a local network and are willing to > buy special PTP compatible hardware you can use PTP and avoid NTP. > PTP relies on external time stamps put on but the network hardware and > is about one order of magnitude better then NTP if you have the right > network hardware. > I believe this may be conventional wisdom but time-nuts shouldn't believe conventional wisdom they should be measuring. E.g. FSM says their NTP+PTP "servers" perform equally well using either protocol. The trick is to use optimized NTP software and timestamping hardware. > And if you REALLY care about timing you will distribute a PPS or a > 10MHz reference > Or, to rephrase "equally poorly using either protocol". ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
PRU appears to be unique to TI. I have only used Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, and Cubieboard. The Cubieboard (Allwinner CPU) has a lot of IO pins like the Beaglebone but nothing like a PRU. Mike George On 3/22/2014 16:53, Chris Albertson wrote: Thanks, Yes of course "ARM" refers only to "ARM" Would you know which other systems include the PRUs? Is it only in the TI products? It seems like an ideal solution to the problem of non-deterministic latency. This may not even be required. There is no point to extreme levels of accuracy because the weak link with any NTP server is the Internet. NTP's purpose is to transfer time over unreliable data links and these links will always be the limiting factor. On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Mike George wrote: The PRUs (Programmable Realtime Unit) aren't a feature of ARM in general (they are not present on the Raspberry Pi for instance). The BeagleBone has 2 PRUs as you describe. It uses the TI Siatra ARM variant. ARM just describes the core architecture. Manufacturers tack on all sorts of proprietary peripherals depending on what they envision as it's primary target market. Mike George On 3/22/2014 15:54, Chris Albertson wrote: On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX wrote: I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. Neither of those is a good way to transfer time to an NTP server. Both Ethernet and USB are packetized. The best way is with a simple wire with a square wave pulse on it that pulses ones per second. Nothing can be more simple or accurate. The trick is to build an NTP server that can react deterministically to the pulse. I think an ARM based system could far outperform an Intel based one. ARM has two independent PRUs. These are little 32-bit processes each with 4K of memory that are build right on the same chip as the main ARM CPU. The PRUs purpose built for real time task and can handle nanosecond level timing. In most existing system the PRUs are ignored and everything is done using the ARM. The other way to improve things even better is to not even bother to have a link from the GPSDO to the NTP server. Why not simply run the NTP server software on the same processor as the GPSDO? Just one of the little PRUs is more than powerful enough to run a GPSDO. They are a 32-bit uP that runs at 200MHz, one instruction per clock. The PRUs don't run any operating system code but have access to all of the ARM's memory and interrupts. A PRU is way-overkill for a GPSDO. Doing this eliminates the link cable from the GPSDO to the NTP server. If the ARM CPU can't handle 6 billion requests per day then buy many copies the ARM based systems. They are cheap. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
In message <532e1620.9080...@tuffmail.us>, Mike George writes: >The PRU on the BeagleBone each include an enhanced capture module that >can be used as you describe. I belive there is also some magic in the ethernet controller, but I have yet to study it carefully. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
The PRU on the BeagleBone each include an enhanced capture module that can be used as you describe. It has a 32 bit timer that is latched into one of the capture registers. The timers are independent of the timer used by the Linux system so I'm not sure how you would tie them into use with NTP. But they do look like they would be useful for monitoring a GPSDO as Chris described. There are 4 capture registers in each eCAP so they would also be useful for monitoring/timestamping other signals. On 3/22/2014 17:44, Hal Murray wrote: albertson.ch...@gmail.com said: Would you know which other systems include the PRUs? Is it only in the TI products? It seems like an ideal solution to the problem of non-deterministic latency. There is a much simpler solution - avoid the latency by using a counter/timer to capture the counter on an external event. (That may assume you are using the same counter for timekeeping.) Many ARM chips come with a blizzard of peripherals. Good counter/timers are common. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 2:25 PM, Brian Lloyd wrote: > NTP running in broadcast mode over a local Gig-E network shouldn't be too > bad. I suspect timing jitter is pretty low. Gigabit Ethernet can be actually worse than 100BaseT because of the way the hardware works. The packets arrive so fast that interrupts occurs per several packets, not per packet. So on Gigabit systems the NTP packet might not get timestamped correctly because the interrupt applies to a group of packets that all came in close in time to each other. You are best off using 100BaseT But as I wrote before if you are on a local network and are willing to buy special PTP compatible hardware you can use PTP and avoid NTP. PTP relies on external time stamps put on but the network hardware and is about one order of magnitude better then NTP if you have the right network hardware. And if you REALLY care about timing you will distribute a PPS or a 10MHz reference NTP is best used over the Internet. It was designed for unreliable data links. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
The main problem for NIST or USNO's servers is not the actual time transfer into the machine -- that is a solved problem, but rather getting enough packets spit out precisely enough, with the required signature to make it traceable. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
albertson.ch...@gmail.com said: > Would you know which other systems include the PRUs? Is it only in the TI > products? It seems like an ideal solution to the problem of > non-deterministic latency. There is a much simpler solution - avoid the latency by using a counter/timer to capture the counter on an external event. (That may assume you are using the same counter for timekeeping.) Many ARM chips come with a blizzard of peripherals. Good counter/timers are common. -- These are my opinions. I hate spam. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 3:53 PM, Chris Albertson wrote: > Thanks, Yes of course "ARM" refers only to "ARM" > > Would you know which other systems include the PRUs? Is it only in > the TI products? It seems like an ideal solution to the problem of > non-deterministic latency. > > This may not even be required. There is no point to extreme levels of > accuracy because the weak link with any NTP server is the Internet. > NTP's purpose is to transfer time over unreliable data links and these > links will always be the limiting factor. > NTP running in broadcast mode over a local Gig-E network shouldn't be too bad. I suspect timing jitter is pretty low. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
Thanks, Yes of course "ARM" refers only to "ARM" Would you know which other systems include the PRUs? Is it only in the TI products? It seems like an ideal solution to the problem of non-deterministic latency. This may not even be required. There is no point to extreme levels of accuracy because the weak link with any NTP server is the Internet. NTP's purpose is to transfer time over unreliable data links and these links will always be the limiting factor. On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 1:23 PM, Mike George wrote: > The PRUs (Programmable Realtime Unit) aren't a feature of ARM in general > (they are not present > on the Raspberry Pi for instance). The BeagleBone has 2 PRUs as you > describe. It uses the TI Siatra > ARM variant. > ARM just describes the core architecture. Manufacturers tack on all sorts > of proprietary peripherals > depending on what they envision as it's primary target market. > > Mike George > > > On 3/22/2014 15:54, Chris Albertson wrote: >> >> On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX >> wrote: >>> >>> I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in >>> gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. >>> >> >> Neither of those is a good way to transfer time to an NTP server. >> Both Ethernet and USB are packetized. The best way is with a simple >> wire with a square wave pulse on it that pulses ones per second. >> Nothing can be more simple or accurate. >> >> The trick is to build an NTP server that can react deterministically >> to the pulse. I think an ARM based system could far outperform an >> Intel based one. ARM has two independent PRUs. These are little >> 32-bit processes each with 4K of memory that are build right on the >> same chip as the main ARM CPU. The PRUs purpose built for real time >> task and can handle nanosecond level timing. In most existing system >> the PRUs are ignored and everything is done using the ARM. >> >> The other way to improve things even better is to not even bother to >> have a link from the GPSDO to the NTP server. Why not simply run the >> NTP server software on the same processor as the GPSDO? Just one of >> the little PRUs is more than powerful enough to run a GPSDO. They are >> a 32-bit uP that runs at 200MHz, one instruction per clock. The PRUs >> don't run any operating system code but have access to all of the >> ARM's memory and interrupts. A PRU is way-overkill for a GPSDO. >> Doing this eliminates the link cable from the GPSDO to the NTP server. >> If the ARM CPU can't handle 6 billion requests per day then buy many >> copies the ARM based systems. They are cheap. >> >> > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 4:16 PM, Brian Lloyd wrote: > > I bet you can come up with an NTP server and a GPSDO for not more than > $200. > I believe the Laureline largely meets the spec. It all "open" -- hardware and software. It's not gigE but it was suggested you could swap in a 1588 PHY. The downside is it's fake NTP so some of the interesting bits won't work but those shouldn't concern the time-nut. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
The PRUs (Programmable Realtime Unit) aren't a feature of ARM in general (they are not present on the Raspberry Pi for instance). The BeagleBone has 2 PRUs as you describe. It uses the TI Siatra ARM variant. ARM just describes the core architecture. Manufacturers tack on all sorts of proprietary peripherals depending on what they envision as it's primary target market. Mike George On 3/22/2014 15:54, Chris Albertson wrote: On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX wrote: I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. Neither of those is a good way to transfer time to an NTP server. Both Ethernet and USB are packetized. The best way is with a simple wire with a square wave pulse on it that pulses ones per second. Nothing can be more simple or accurate. The trick is to build an NTP server that can react deterministically to the pulse. I think an ARM based system could far outperform an Intel based one. ARM has two independent PRUs. These are little 32-bit processes each with 4K of memory that are build right on the same chip as the main ARM CPU. The PRUs purpose built for real time task and can handle nanosecond level timing. In most existing system the PRUs are ignored and everything is done using the ARM. The other way to improve things even better is to not even bother to have a link from the GPSDO to the NTP server. Why not simply run the NTP server software on the same processor as the GPSDO? Just one of the little PRUs is more than powerful enough to run a GPSDO. They are a 32-bit uP that runs at 200MHz, one instruction per clock. The PRUs don't run any operating system code but have access to all of the ARM's memory and interrupts. A PRU is way-overkill for a GPSDO. Doing this eliminates the link cable from the GPSDO to the NTP server. If the ARM CPU can't handle 6 billion requests per day then buy many copies the ARM based systems. They are cheap. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 2:24 PM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX wrote: > I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in > gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. > Why not a BeagleBoneBlack with a GPS module that has 1pps out connected to an I/O pin. For that matter, add your OCXO and let the BBB discipline that at the same time. I bet you can come up with an NTP server and a GPSDO for not more than $200. -- Brian Lloyd, WB6RQN/J79BPL 706 Flightline Drive Spring Branch, TX 78070 br...@lloyd.com +1.916.877.5067 ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:24 PM, Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX wrote: > I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in > gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. > Neither of those is a good way to transfer time to an NTP server. Both Ethernet and USB are packetized. The best way is with a simple wire with a square wave pulse on it that pulses ones per second. Nothing can be more simple or accurate. The trick is to build an NTP server that can react deterministically to the pulse. I think an ARM based system could far outperform an Intel based one. ARM has two independent PRUs. These are little 32-bit processes each with 4K of memory that are build right on the same chip as the main ARM CPU. The PRUs purpose built for real time task and can handle nanosecond level timing. In most existing system the PRUs are ignored and everything is done using the ARM. The other way to improve things even better is to not even bother to have a link from the GPSDO to the NTP server. Why not simply run the NTP server software on the same processor as the GPSDO? Just one of the little PRUs is more than powerful enough to run a GPSDO. They are a 32-bit uP that runs at 200MHz, one instruction per clock. The PRUs don't run any operating system code but have access to all of the ARM's memory and interrupts. A PRU is way-overkill for a GPSDO. Doing this eliminates the link cable from the GPSDO to the NTP server. If the ARM CPU can't handle 6 billion requests per day then buy many copies the ARM based systems. They are cheap. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
I can see a use for an inexpensive GPSDO with a built-in gigabit ethernet or USB3 port powering an NTP server. On 03/19/2014 10:21 AM, Jim Lux wrote: On 3/19/14 9:50 AM, Chris Albertson wrote: So they want to in-invent NTP? I think NTP already services way more than 6.5 billion per day. The problem with NTP is while it is nearly optimal and provides the best time accuracy for a given hardware/network setup it is not technically "traceable" even if the time really is from NIST indirectly. They are well aware of NTP.. they serve 6.5 billion a day *from NIST* and that's what they are looking at potentially outsourcing or changing. And, of course, there's the "legally traceable" aspect. I think you could fix this traceability problem with some rules about how to write the configuration files, no new software. For example NTP already handles cryptographic authentication. Make the use of this monitory so that then you know you are talking to a NIST referenced server. That's very possible, and you could respond to the RFI and tell them so. Could you set up a legally traceable set of multiple tiers? What would the mechanics of this be? That's really what the RFI is all about.. "tell us what you think we need to know".. They'll get responses that are overlapping existing knowledge, for sure. And nobody is going to respond with something that is confidential or proprietary or telegraphs a future product line, because all the RFI responses are essentially public info. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there. -- Chuck Forsberg WA7KGX c...@omen.com www.omen.com Developer of Industrial ZMODEM(Tm) for Embedded Applications Omen Technology Inc "The High Reliability Software" 10255 NW Old Cornelius Pass Portland OR 97231 503-614-0430 ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On 3/19/14 9:50 AM, Chris Albertson wrote: So they want to in-invent NTP? I think NTP already services way more than 6.5 billion per day. The problem with NTP is while it is nearly optimal and provides the best time accuracy for a given hardware/network setup it is not technically "traceable" even if the time really is from NIST indirectly. They are well aware of NTP.. they serve 6.5 billion a day *from NIST* and that's what they are looking at potentially outsourcing or changing. And, of course, there's the "legally traceable" aspect. I think you could fix this traceability problem with some rules about how to write the configuration files, no new software. For example NTP already handles cryptographic authentication. Make the use of this monitory so that then you know you are talking to a NIST referenced server. That's very possible, and you could respond to the RFI and tell them so. Could you set up a legally traceable set of multiple tiers? What would the mechanics of this be? That's really what the RFI is all about.. "tell us what you think we need to know".. They'll get responses that are overlapping existing knowledge, for sure. And nobody is going to respond with something that is confidential or proprietary or telegraphs a future product line, because all the RFI responses are essentially public info. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
So they want to in-invent NTP? I think NTP already services way more than 6.5 billion per day. The problem with NTP is while it is nearly optimal and provides the best time accuracy for a given hardware/network setup it is not technically "traceable" even if the time really is from NIST indirectly. I think you could fix this traceability problem with some rules about how to write the configuration files, no new software. For example NTP already handles cryptographic authentication. Make the use of this monitory so that then you know you are talking to a NIST referenced server. On Tue, Mar 18, 2014 at 10:18 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote: > If you can design a system that can handle 6.5 billion requests per day, this > opportunity is for you... > > > https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments/listing.html > > Solicitation Number: RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments > > Synopsis: > Added: Mar 18, 2014 9:46 am > > SUMMARY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Department of > Commerce, seeks information from the public on NIST's potential transition of > time services from a NIST-only service to private sector operation of an > ensemble of time servers that will provide NIST-traceable time information in > a number of different formats over the public Internet. > > > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
On 3/18/14 10:18 PM, Tom Van Baak wrote: If you can design a system that can handle 6.5 billion requests per day, this opportunity is for you... https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments/listing.html Solicitation Number: RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments For those that are unfamiliar with the ways of US Government contracting, this is NOT a request for proposals to provide the service. It's more of a preliminary step to identify potential bidders, gather background information, shake the trees to find out who the potential players are, as well as help make a decision on whether it's even a good idea. (e.g. it might feature into a make vs buy report) We do this at NASA when we want to make sure we haven't missed something in the marketplace. These days, Government folks don't go to as many conferences and almost no trade shows. So you find out what's available by exercising google or bing, which is not such a great way to find niche products and services. Someone who's got a great way to do reliable, accurate time distribution over the internet might not have a big web presence, or might be overshadowed by something similar that has been heavily Search Engine Optimized. This is also a way for people who aren't necessarily interested in providing the service to give comments to NIST about potential issues that may be of concern. Those kinds of comments might wind up changing the eventual procurement, or might even result in a report that says "nope, not worth privatizing this, because of reasons A, B, and C". that's the crux of question 7 at the end "What are advantages and disadvantages of NIST's potential transition of time services from a NIST-only service to private sector operation..." A lot of the questions at the end of the RFI are things that get discussed on time-nuts from time to time. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
Re: [time-nuts] NIST time services
I would, but I don't have the time at the moment :) Didier KO4BB On March 19, 2014 12:18:23 AM CDT, Tom Van Baak wrote: >If you can design a system that can handle 6.5 billion requests per >day, this opportunity is for you... > > >https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments/listing.html > >Solicitation Number: RFI_InternetTimeServiceComments > >Synopsis: >Added: Mar 18, 2014 9:46 am > >SUMMARY: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), >Department of Commerce, seeks information from the public on NIST's >potential transition of time services from a NIST-only service to >private sector operation of an ensemble of time servers that will >provide NIST-traceable time information in a number of different >formats over the public Internet. > > > >___ >time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com >To unsubscribe, go to >https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >and follow the instructions there. -- Sent from my Motorola Droid Razr 4G LTE wireless tracker while I do other things. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.