path: root/doc/rfc/rfc4330.txt

Network Working Group                                           D. Mills
Request for Comments: 4330                        University of Delaware
Obsoletes: 2030, 1769                                       January 2006
Category: Informational


             Simple Network Time Protocol (SNTP) Version 4
                         for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI

Status of This Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

   This memorandum describes the Simple Network Time Protocol Version 4
   (SNTPv4), which is a subset of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) used
   to synchronize computer clocks in the Internet.  SNTPv4 can be used
   when the ultimate performance of a full NTP implementation based on
   RFC 1305 is neither needed nor justified.  When operating with
   current and previous NTP and SNTP versions, SNTPv4 requires no
   changes to the specifications or known implementations, but rather
   clarifies certain design features that allow operation in a simple,
   stateless remote-procedure call (RPC) mode with accuracy and
   reliability expectations similar to the UDP/TIME protocol described
   in RFC 868.

   This memorandum obsoletes RFC 1769, which describes SNTP Version 3
   (SNTPv3), and RFC 2030, which describes SNTPv4.  Its purpose is to
   correct certain inconsistencies in the previous documents and to
   clarify header formats and protocol operations for NTPv3 (IPv4) and
   SNTPv4 (IPv4, IPv6, and OSI), which are also used for SNTP.  A
   further purpose is to provide guidance for home and business client
   implementations for routers and other consumer devices to protect the
   server population from abuse.  A working knowledge of the NTPv3
   specification, RFC 1305, is not required for an implementation of
   SNTP.








Mills                        Informational                      [Page 1]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
      1.1. Specification of Requirements ..............................5
   2. Operating Modes and Addressing ..................................5
   3. NTP Timestamp Format ............................................6
   4. Message Format ..................................................8
   5. SNTP Client Operations .........................................13
   6. SNTP Server Operations .........................................16
   7. Configuration and Management ...................................19
   8. The Kiss-o'-Death Packet .......................................20
   9. On Being a Good Network Citizen ................................21
   10. Best Practices ................................................21
   11. Security Considerations .......................................24
   12. Acknowledgements ..............................................24
   13. Contributors ..................................................24
   14. Informative References ........................................25

1.  Introduction

   The Network Time Protocol Version 3 (NTPv3), specified in RFC 1305
   [MIL92], is widely used to synchronize computer clocks in the global
   Internet.  It provides comprehensive mechanisms to access national
   time and frequency dissemination services, organize the NTP subnet of
   servers and clients, and adjust the system clock in each participant.
   In most places of the Internet of today, NTP provides accuracies of
   1-50 ms, depending on the characteristics of the synchronization
   source and network paths.

   RFC 1305 specifies the NTP protocol machine in terms of events,
   states, transition functions and actions, and engineered algorithms
   to improve the timekeeping quality and to mitigate several
   synchronization sources, some of which may be faulty.  To achieve
   accuracies in the low milliseconds over paths spanning major portions
   of the Internet, these intricate algorithms, or their functional
   equivalents, are necessary.  In many applications, accuracies on the
   order of significant fractions of a second are acceptable.  In simple
   home router applications, accuracies of up to a minute may suffice.
   In such cases, simpler protocols, such as the Time Protocol specified
   in RFC 868 [POS83], have been used for this purpose.  These protocols
   involve an RPC exchange where the client requests the time of day and
   the server returns it in seconds past a known reference epoch.

   NTP is designed for use by clients and servers with a wide range of
   capabilities and over a wide range of network jitter and clock
   frequency wander characteristics.  Many users of NTP in the Internet
   of today use a software distribution available from www.ntp.org.  The
   distribution, which includes the full suite of NTP options,



Mills                        Informational                      [Page 2]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   mitigation algorithms, and security schemes, is a relatively complex,
   real-time application.  Although the software has been ported to a
   wide variety of hardware platforms ranging from personal computers to
   supercomputers, its sheer size and complexity is not appropriate for
   many applications.  Accordingly, it is useful to explore alternative
   strategies using simpler software appropriate for less stringent
   accuracy expectations.

   This memo describes the Simple Network Time Protocol Version 4
   (SNTPv4), which is a simplified access paradigm for servers and
   clients using current and previous versions of NTP and SNTP.  The
   access paradigm is identical to the UDP/TIME Protocol, and, in fact,
   it should be easy to adapt a UDP/TIME client implementation, say for
   a personal computer, to operate using SNTP.  Moreover, SNTP is also
   designed to operate in a dedicated server configuration including an
   integrated radio clock.  With careful design and control of the
   various latencies in the system, which is practical in a dedicated
   design, it is possible to deliver time accurate on the order of
   microseconds.

   The only significant protocol change in SNTPv4 from previous SNTP
   versions is a modified header interpretation to accommodate Internet
   Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) (RFC 2460) and OSI (RFC 1629) addressing.
   However, SNTPv4 includes certain optional extensions to the basic NTP
   Version 3 (NTPv3) model, including a manycast mode and a public-key-
   based authentication scheme designed specifically for broadcast and
   manycast applications.  Although the manycast mode is described in
   this memo, the authentication scheme is described in another RFC to
   be submitted later.  Until such time that a definitive NTPv4
   specification is published, the manycast and authentication features
   should be considered provisional.  In addition, this memo introduces
   the kiss-o'-death message, which can be used by servers to suppress
   client requests as circumstances require.

   When operating with current and previous versions of NTP and SNTP,
   SNTPv4 requires no changes to the protocol or implementations now
   running or likely to be implemented specifically for future NTP or
   SNTP versions.  The NTP and SNTP packet formats are the same, and the
   arithmetic operations to calculate the client time, clock offset, and
   roundtrip delay are the same.  To an NTP or SNTP server, NTP and SNTP
   clients are indistinguishable; to an NTP or SNTP client, NTP and SNTP
   servers are indistinguishable.  Like NTP servers operating in non-
   symmetric modes, SNTP servers are stateless and can support large
   numbers of clients; however, unlike most NTP clients, SNTP clients
   normally operate with only a single server at a time.

   The full degree of reliability ordinarily expected of NTP servers is
   possible only using redundant sources, diverse paths, and the crafted



Mills                        Informational                      [Page 3]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   algorithms of a full NTP implementation.  It is strongly recommended
   that SNTP clients be used only at the extremities of the
   synchronization subnet.  SNTP clients should operate only at the
   leaves (highest stratum) of the subnet and in configurations where no
   NTP or SNTP client is dependent on another SNTP client for
   synchronization.  SNTP servers should operate only at the root
   (stratum 1) of the subnet, and then only in configurations where no
   other source of synchronization other than a reliable radio clock or
   telephone modem is available.

   An important provision in this memo is the interpretation of certain
   NTP header fields that provide for IPv6 [DEE98] and OSI [COL94]
   addressing.  The only significant difference between the NTP and
   SNTPv4 header formats is the four-octet Reference Identifier field,
   which is used primarily to detect and avoid synchronization loops.
   In all NTP and SNTP versions providing IPv4 addressing, primary
   servers use a four-character ASCII reference clock identifier in this
   field, whereas secondary servers use the 32-bit IPv4 address of the
   synchronization source.  In SNTPv4 providing IPv6 and OSI addressing,
   primary servers use the same clock identifier, but secondary servers
   use the first 32 bits of the MD5 hash of the IPv6 or NSAP address of
   the synchronization source.  A further use of this field is when the
   server sends a kiss-o'-death message, documented later in this memo.

      NTP Version 4 (NTPv4), now in deployment, but not yet the subject
      of a standards document, uses the same Reference Identifier field
      as SNTPv4.

   In the case of OSI, the Connectionless Transport Service (CLTS) is
   used as in [ISO86].  Each SNTP packet is transmitted as the TS-
   Userdata parameter of a T-UNITDATA Request primitive.  Alternately,
   the header can be encapsulated in a Transport Protocol Data Unit
   (TPDU), which itself is transported using UDP, as described in RFC
   1240 [DOB91].  It is not advised that NTP be operated at the upper
   layers of the OSI stack, such as might be inferred from RFC 1698
   [FUR94], as this could seriously degrade accuracy.  With the header
   formats defined in this memo, it is in principle possible to
   interwork between servers and clients of one protocol family and
   another, although the practical difficulties may make this
   inadvisable.

      In the following, indented paragraphs such as this one contain
      information not required by the formal protocol specification, but
      considered good practice in protocol implementations.

   This memo is organized as follows.  Section 2 describes how the
   protocol works, the various modes, and how IP addresses and UDP ports
   are used.  Section 3 describes the NTP timestamp format, and Section



Mills                        Informational                      [Page 4]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   4 the NTP message format.  Section 5 summarizes SNTP client
   operations, and Section 6 summarizes SNTP server operations.  Section
   7 summarizes operation and management issues.  Section 8 describes
   the kiss-o'-death message, newly minted with functions similar to the
   ICMP Source Quench and ICMP Destination Unreachable messages.
   Section 9 summarizes design issues important for good network
   citizenry and presents an example algorithm designed to give good
   reliability while minimizing network and server resource demands.

1.1.  Specification of Requirements

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [BRA97].

2.  Operating Modes and Addressing

   Unless excepted in context, a reference to broadcast address means
   IPv4 broadcast address, IPv4 multicast group address, or IPv6 address
   of appropriate scope.  Further information on the broadcast/multicast
   model is in RFC 1112 [DEE89].  Details of address format, scoping
   rules, etc., are beyond the scope of this memo.  SNTPv4 can operate
   with either unicast (point to point), broadcast (point to
   multipoint), or manycast (multipoint to point) addressing modes.  A
   unicast client sends a request to a designated server at its unicast
   address and expects a reply from which it can determine the time and,
   optionally, the roundtrip delay and clock offset relative to the
   server.  A broadcast server periodically sends an unsolicited message
   to a designated broadcast address.  A broadcast client listens on
   this address and ordinarily sends no requests.

   Manycast is an extension of the anycast paradigm described in RFC
   1546 [PAR93].  It is designed for use with a set of cooperating
   servers whose addresses are not known beforehand.  The manycast
   client sends an ordinary NTP client request to a designated broadcast
   address.  One or more manycast servers listen on that address.  Upon
   receiving a request, a manycast server sends an ordinary NTP server
   reply to the client.  The client then mobilizes an association for
   each server found and continues operation with all of them.
   Subsequently, the NTP mitigation algorithms operate to cast out all
   except the best three.

      Broadcast servers should respond to client unicast requests, as
      well as send unsolicited broadcast messages.  Broadcast clients
      may send unicast requests in order to measure the network
      propagation delay between the server and client and then continue
      operation in listen-only mode.  However, broadcast servers may




Mills                        Informational                      [Page 5]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


      choose not to respond to unicast requests, so unicast clients
      should be prepared to abandon the measurement and assume a default
      value for the delay.

   The client and server addresses are assigned following the usual
   IPv4, IPv6 or OSI conventions.  For NTP multicast, the IANA has
   reserved the IPv4 group address 224.0.1.1 and the IPv6 address ending
   :101 with appropriate scope.  The NTP broadcast address for OSI has
   yet to be determined.  Notwithstanding the IANA reserved addresses,
   other multicast addresses can be used that do not conflict with
   others assigned in scope.  The scoping, routing, and group membership
   procedures are determined by considerations beyond the scope of this
   memo.

      It is important to adjust the time-to-live (TTL) field in the IP
      header of multicast messages to a reasonable value in order to
      limit the network resources used by this (and any other) multicast
      service.  Only multicast clients in scope will receive multicast
      server messages.  Only cooperating manycast servers in scope will
      reply to a client request.  The engineering principles that
      determine the proper values to be used are beyond the scope of
      this memo.

      In the case of SNTP as specified herein, there is a very real
      vulnerability that SNTP broadcast clients can be disrupted by
      misbehaving or hostile SNTP or NTP broadcast servers elsewhere in
      the Internet.  It is strongly recommended that access controls
      and/or cryptographic authentication means be provided for
      additional security in such cases.

      It is intended that IP broadcast addresses will be used primarily
      in IP subnets and LAN segments including a fully functional NTP
      server with a number of dependent SNTP broadcast clients on the
      same subnet, and that IP multicast group addresses will be used
      only in cases where the TTL is engineered specifically for each
      service domain.  However, these uses are not integral to the SNTP
      specification.

3.  NTP Timestamp Format

   SNTP uses the standard NTP timestamp format described in RFC 1305 and
   previous versions of that document.  In conformance with standard
   Internet practice, NTP data are specified as integer or fixed-point
   quantities, with bits numbered in big-endian fashion from 0 starting
   at the left or most significant end.  Unless specified otherwise, all
   quantities are unsigned and may occupy the full field width with an
   implied 0 preceding bit 0.




Mills                        Informational                      [Page 6]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   Because NTP timestamps are cherished data and, in fact, represent the
   main product of the protocol, a special timestamp format has been
   established.  NTP timestamps are represented as a 64-bit unsigned
   fixed-point number, in seconds relative to 0h on 1 January 1900.  The
   integer part is in the first 32 bits, and the fraction part in the
   last 32 bits.  In the fraction part, the non-significant low-order
   bits are not specified and are ordinarily set to 0.

      It is advisable to fill the non-significant low-order bits of the
      timestamp with a random, unbiased bitstring, both to avoid
      systematic roundoff errors and to provide loop detection and
      replay detection (see below).  It is important that the bitstring
      be unpredictable by an intruder.  One way of doing this is to
      generate a random 128-bit bitstring at startup.  After that, each
      time the system clock is read, the string consisting of the
      timestamp and bitstring is hashed with the MD5 algorithm, then the
      non-significant bits of the timestamp are copied from the result.

   The NTP format allows convenient multiple-precision arithmetic and
   conversion to UDP/TIME message (seconds), but does complicate the
   conversion to ICMP Timestamp message (milliseconds) and Unix time
   values (seconds and microseconds or seconds and nanoseconds).  The
   maximum number that can be represented is 4,294,967,295 seconds with
   a precision of about 232 picoseconds, which should be adequate for
   even the most exotic requirements.

                           1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                           Seconds                             |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                  Seconds Fraction (0-padded)                  |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Note that since some time in 1968 (second 2,147,483,648), the most
   significant bit (bit 0 of the integer part) has been set and that the
   64-bit field will overflow some time in 2036 (second 4,294,967,296).
   There will exist a 232-picosecond interval, henceforth ignored, every
   136 years when the 64-bit field will be 0, which by convention is
   interpreted as an invalid or unavailable timestamp.

      As the NTP timestamp format has been in use for over 20 years, it
      is possible that it will be in use 32 years from now, when the
      seconds field overflows.  As it is probably inappropriate to
      archive NTP timestamps before bit 0 was set in 1968, a convenient
      way to extend the useful life of NTP timestamps is the following
      convention: If bit 0 is set, the UTC time is in the range 1968-
      2036, and UTC time is reckoned from 0h 0m 0s UTC on 1 January



Mills                        Informational                      [Page 7]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


      1900.  If bit 0 is not set, the time is in the range 2036-2104 and
      UTC time is reckoned from 6h 28m 16s UTC on 7 February 2036.  Note
      that when calculating the correspondence, 2000 is a leap year, and
      leap seconds are not included in the reckoning.

      The arithmetic calculations used by NTP to determine the clock
      offset and roundtrip delay require the client time to be within 34
      years of the server time before the client is launched.  As the
      time since the Unix base 1970 is now more than 34 years, means
      must be available to initialize the clock at a date closer to the
      present, either with a time-of-year (TOY) chip or from firmware.

4.  Message Format

   Both NTP and SNTP are clients of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
   specified in RFC 768 [POS80].  The structures of the IP and UDP
   headers are described in the cited specification documents and will
   not be detailed further here.  The UDP port number assigned by the
   IANA to NTP is 123.  The SNTP client should use this value in the UDP
   Destination Port field for client request messages.  The Source Port
   field of these messages can be any nonzero value chosen for
   identification or multiplexing purposes.  The server interchanges
   these fields for the corresponding reply messages.

      This differs from the RFC 2030 specifications, which required both
      the source and destination ports to be 123.  The intent of this
      change is to allow the identification of particular client
      implementations (which are now allowed to use unreserved port
      numbers, including ones of their choosing) and to attain
      compatibility with Network Address Port Translation (NAPT)
      described in RFC 2663 [SRI99] and RFC 3022 [SRI01].

   Figure 1 is a description of the NTP and SNTP message format, which
   follows the IP and UDP headers in the message.  This format is
   identical to the NTP message format described in RFC 1305, with the
   exception of the Reference Identifier field described below.  For
   SNTP client messages, most of these fields are zero or initialized
   with pre-specified data.  For completeness, the function of each
   field is briefly summarized below.












Mills                        Informational                      [Page 8]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


                           1                   2                   3
       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  0  1
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |LI | VN  |Mode |    Stratum    |     Poll      |   Precision    |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                          Root  Delay                           |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                       Root  Dispersion                         |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                     Reference Identifier                       |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                                |
      |                    Reference Timestamp (64)                    |
      |                                                                |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                                |
      |                    Originate Timestamp (64)                    |
      |                                                                |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                                |
      |                     Receive Timestamp (64)                     |
      |                                                                |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                                |
      |                     Transmit Timestamp (64)                    |
      |                                                                |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                 Key Identifier (optional) (32)                 |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
      |                                                                |
      |                                                                |
      |                 Message Digest (optional) (128)                |
      |                                                                |
      |                                                                |
      +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

                        Figure 1.  NTP Packet Header

   Leap Indicator (LI): This is a two-bit code warning of an impending
   leap second to be inserted/deleted in the last minute of the current
   day.  This field is significant only in server messages, where the
   values are defined as follows:









Mills                        Informational                      [Page 9]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


      LI       Meaning
      ---------------------------------------------
      0        no warning
      1        last minute has 61 seconds
      2        last minute has 59 seconds
      3        alarm condition (clock not synchronized)

   On startup, servers set this field to 3 (clock not synchronized), and
   set this field to some other value when synchronized to the primary
   reference clock.  Once set to a value other than 3, the field is
   never set to that value again, even if all synchronization sources
   become unreachable or defective.

   Version Number (VN): This is a three-bit integer indicating the
   NTP/SNTP version number, currently 4.  If necessary to distinguish
   between IPv4, IPv6, and OSI, the encapsulating context must be
   inspected.

   Mode: This is a three-bit number indicating the protocol mode.  The
   values are defined as follows:

      Mode     Meaning
      ------------------------------------
      0        reserved
      1        symmetric active
      2        symmetric passive
      3        client
      4        server
      5        broadcast
      6        reserved for NTP control message
      7        reserved for private use

   In unicast and manycast modes, the client sets this field to 3
   (client) in the request, and the server sets it to 4 (server) in the
   reply.  In broadcast mode, the server sets this field to 5
   (broadcast).  The other modes are not used by SNTP servers and
   clients.

   Stratum: This is an eight-bit unsigned integer indicating the
   stratum.  This field is significant only in SNTP server messages,
   where the values are defined as follows:

      Stratum  Meaning
      ----------------------------------------------
      0        kiss-o'-death message (see below)
      1        primary reference (e.g., synchronized by radio clock)
      2-15     secondary reference (synchronized by NTP or SNTP)
      16-255   reserved



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 10]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   Poll Interval: This is an eight-bit unsigned integer used as an
   exponent of two, where the resulting value is the maximum interval
   between successive messages in seconds.  This field is significant
   only in SNTP server messages, where the values range from 4 (16 s) to
   17 (131,072 s -- about 36 h).

   Precision: This is an eight-bit signed integer used as an exponent of
   two, where the resulting value is the precision of the system clock
   in seconds.  This field is significant only in server messages, where
   the values range from -6 for mains-frequency clocks to -20 for
   microsecond clocks found in some workstations.

   Root Delay: This is a 32-bit signed fixed-point number indicating the
   total roundtrip delay to the primary reference source, in seconds
   with the fraction point between bits 15 and 16.  Note that this
   variable can take on both positive and negative values, depending on
   the relative time and frequency offsets.  This field is significant
   only in server messages, where the values range from negative values
   of a few milliseconds to positive values of several hundred
   milliseconds.

      Code       External Reference Source
      ------------------------------------------------------------------
      LOCL       uncalibrated local clock
      CESM       calibrated Cesium clock
      RBDM       calibrated Rubidium clock
      PPS        calibrated quartz clock or other pulse-per-second
                 source
      IRIG       Inter-Range Instrumentation Group
      ACTS       NIST telephone modem service
      USNO       USNO telephone modem service
      PTB        PTB (Germany) telephone modem service
      TDF        Allouis (France) Radio 164 kHz
      DCF        Mainflingen (Germany) Radio 77.5 kHz
      MSF        Rugby (UK) Radio 60 kHz
      WWV        Ft. Collins (US) Radio 2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20 MHz
      WWVB       Boulder (US) Radio 60 kHz
      WWVH       Kauai Hawaii (US) Radio 2.5, 5, 10, 15 MHz
      CHU        Ottawa (Canada) Radio 3330, 7335, 14670 kHz
      LORC       LORAN-C radionavigation system
      OMEG       OMEGA radionavigation system
      GPS        Global Positioning Service

                     Figure 2.  Reference Identifier Codes







Mills                        Informational                     [Page 11]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   Root Dispersion: This is a 32-bit unsigned fixed-point number
   indicating the maximum error due to the clock frequency tolerance, in
   seconds with the fraction point between bits 15 and 16.  This field
   is significant only in server messages, where the values range from
   zero to several hundred milliseconds.

   Reference Identifier: This is a 32-bit bitstring identifying the
   particular reference source.  This field is significant only in
   server messages, where for stratum 0 (kiss-o'-death message) and 1
   (primary server), the value is a four-character ASCII string, left
   justified and zero padded to 32 bits.  For IPv4 secondary servers,
   the value is the 32-bit IPv4 address of the synchronization source.
   For IPv6 and OSI secondary servers, the value is the first 32 bits of
   the MD5 hash of the IPv6 or NSAP address of the synchronization
   source.

   Primary (stratum 1) servers set this field to a code identifying the
   external reference source according to Figure 2.  If the external
   reference is one of those listed, the associated code should be used.
   Codes for sources not listed can be contrived, as appropriate.

      In previous NTP and SNTP secondary servers and clients, this field
      was often used to walk-back the synchronization subnet to the root
      (primary server) for management purposes.  In SNTPv4 with IPv6 or
      OSI, this feature is not available, because the addresses are
      longer than 32 bits, and only a hash is available.  However, a
      walk-back can be accomplished using the NTP control message and
      the reference identifier field described in RFC 1305.

   Reference Timestamp: This field is the time the system clock was last
   set or corrected, in 64-bit timestamp format.

   Originate Timestamp: This is the time at which the request departed
   the client for the server, in 64-bit timestamp format.

   Receive Timestamp: This is the time at which the request arrived at
   the server or the reply arrived at the client, in 64-bit timestamp
   format.

   Transmit Timestamp: This is the time at which the request departed
   the client or the reply departed the server, in 64-bit timestamp
   format.

   Authenticator (optional): When the NTP authentication scheme is
   implemented, the Key Identifier and Message Digest fields contain the
   message authentication code (MAC) information defined in Appendix C
   of RFC 1305.




Mills                        Informational                     [Page 12]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


5.  SNTP Client Operations

   An SNTP client can operate in unicast, broadcast, or manycast modes.
   In unicast mode, the client sends a request (NTP mode 3) to a
   designated unicast server and expects a reply (NTP mode 4) from that
   server.  In broadcast client mode, it sends no request and waits for
   a broadcast (NTP mode 5) from one or more broadcast servers.  In
   manycast mode, the client sends a request (NTP mode 3) to a
   designated broadcast address and expects a reply (NTP mode 4) from
   one or more manycast servers.  The client uses the first reply
   received to establish the particular server for subsequent unicast
   operations.  Later replies from this server (duplicates) or any other
   server are ignored.  Other than the selection of address in the
   request, the operations of manycast and unicast clients are
   identical.

      Client requests are normally sent at intervals depending on the
      frequency tolerance of the client clock and the required accuracy.
      However, under no conditions should requests be sent at less than
      one minute intervals.  Further discussion on this point is in
      Section 9.

   A unicast or manycast client initializes the NTP message header,
   sends the request to the server, and strips the time of day from the
   Transmit Timestamp field of the reply.  For this purpose, all the NTP
   header fields shown above are set to 0, except the Mode, VN, and
   optional Transmit Timestamp fields.

   NTP and SNTP clients set the mode field to 3 (client) for unicast and
   manycast requests.  They set the VN field to any version number that
   is supported by the server, selected by configuration or discovery,
   and that can interoperate with all previous version NTP and SNTP
   servers.  Servers reply with the same version as the request, so the
   VN field of the request also specifies the VN field of the reply.  A
   prudent SNTP client can specify the earliest acceptable version on
   the expectation that any server of that or a later version will
   respond.  NTP Version 3 (RFC 1305) and Version 2 (RFC 1119) servers
   accept all previous versions, including Version 1 (RFC 1059).  Note
   that Version 0 (RFC 959) is no longer supported by current and future
   NTP and SNTP servers.

   Although setting the Transmit Timestamp field in the request to the
   time of day according to the client clock in NTP timestamp format is
   not necessary in a conforming client implementation, it is highly
   recommended in unicast and manycast modes.  This allows a simple
   calculation to determine the propagation delay between the server and
   client and to align the system clock generally within a few tens of
   milliseconds relative to the server.  In addition, this provides a



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 13]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   simple method for verifying that the server reply is in fact a
   legitimate response to the specific client request and thereby for
   avoiding replays.  In broadcast mode, the client has no information
   to calculate the propagation delay or to determine the validity of
   the server, unless one of the NTP authentication schemes is used.

   To calculate the roundtrip delay d and system clock offset t relative
   to the server, the client sets the Transmit Timestamp field in the
   request to the time of day according to the client clock in NTP
   timestamp format.  For this purpose, the clock need not be
   synchronized.  The server copies this field to the Originate
   Timestamp in the reply and sets the Receive Timestamp and Transmit
   Timestamp fields to the time of day according to the server clock in
   NTP timestamp format.

   When the server reply is received, the client determines a
   Destination Timestamp variable as the time of arrival according to
   its clock in NTP timestamp format.  The following table summarizes
   the four timestamps.

      Timestamp Name          ID   When Generated
      ------------------------------------------------------------
      Originate Timestamp     T1   time request sent by client
      Receive Timestamp       T2   time request received by server
      Transmit Timestamp      T3   time reply sent by server
      Destination Timestamp   T4   time reply received by client

   The roundtrip delay d and system clock offset t are defined as:

      d = (T4 - T1) - (T3 - T2)     t = ((T2 - T1) + (T3 - T4)) / 2.

   Note that in general both delay and offset are signed quantities and
   can be less than zero; however, a delay less than zero is possible
   only in symmetric modes, which SNTP clients are forbidden to use.
   The following table summarizes the required SNTP client operations in
   unicast, manycast, and broadcast modes.  The recommended error checks
   are shown in the Reply and Broadcast columns in the table.  The
   message should be considered valid only if all the fields shown
   contain values in the respective ranges.  Whether to believe the
   message if one or more of the fields marked "ignore" contain invalid
   values is at the discretion of the implementation.










Mills                        Informational                     [Page 14]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


      Field Name               Unicast/Manycast            Broadcast
                               Request     Reply
      ---------------------------------------------------------------
      LI                       0           0-3            0-3

      VN                       1-4         copied from    1-4
                                           request

      Mode                     3           4              5

      Stratum                  0           0-15           0-15

      Poll                     0           ignore         ignore

      Precision                0           ignore         ignore

      Root Delay               0           ignore         ignore

      Root Dispersion          0           ignore         ignore

      Reference Identifier     0           ignore         ignore

      Reference Timestamp      0           ignore         ignore

      Originate Timestamp      0           (see text)     ignore

      Receive Timestamp        0           (see text)     ignore

      Transmit Timestamp       (see text)  nonzero        nonzero

      Authenticator            optional    optional       optional

   Although not required in a conforming SNTP client implementation, it
   is wise to consider a suite of sanity checks designed to avoid
   various kinds of abuse that might happen as the result of server
   implementation errors or malicious attack.  Following is a list of
   suggested checks.

   1.  When the IP source and destination addresses are available for
       the client request, they should match the interchanged addresses
       in the server reply.

   2.  When the UDP source and destination ports are available for the
       client request, they should match the interchanged ports in the
       server reply.

   3.  The Originate Timestamp in the server reply should match the
       Transmit Timestamp used in the client request.



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 15]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   4.  The server reply should be discarded if any of the LI, Stratum,
       or Transmit Timestamp fields is 0 or the Mode field is not 4
       (unicast) or 5 (broadcast).

   5.  A truly paranoid client can check that the Root Delay and Root
       Dispersion fields are each greater than or equal to 0 and less
       than infinity, where infinity is currently a cozy number like one
       second.  This check avoids using a server whose synchronization
       source has expired for a very long time.

6.  SNTP Server Operations

   A SNTP server operating with either an NTP or SNTP client of the same
   or previous versions retains no persistent state.  Because an SNTP
   server ordinarily does not implement the full suite of grooming and
   mitigation algorithms intended to support redundant servers and
   diverse network paths, it should be operated only in conjunction with
   a source of external synchronization, such as a reliable radio clock
   or telephone modem.  In this case it operates as a primary (stratum
   1) server.

   A SNTP server can operate with any unicast, manycast, or broadcast
   address or any combination of these addresses.  A unicast or manycast
   server receives a request (NTP mode 3), modifies certain fields in
   the NTP header, and sends a reply (NTP mode 4), possibly using the
   same message buffer as the request.  A manycast server listens on the
   designated broadcast address, but uses its own unicast IP address in
   the source address field of the reply.  Other than the selection of
   address in the reply, the operations of manycast and unicast servers
   are identical.  Broadcast messages are normally sent at intervals
   from 64 s to 1024 s, depending on the expected frequency tolerance of
   the client clocks and the required accuracy.

   Unicast and manycast servers copy the VN and Poll fields of the
   request intact to the reply and set the Stratum field to 1.

      Note that SNTP servers normally operate as primary (stratum 1)
      servers.  Although operating at higher strata (up to 15) while
      synchronizing to an external source such as a GPS receiver is not
      forbidden, this is strongly discouraged.

   If the Mode field of the request is 3 (client), the reply is set to 4
   (server).  If this field is set to 1 (symmetric active), the reply is
   set to 2 (symmetric passive).  This allows clients configured in
   either client (NTP mode 3) or symmetric active (NTP mode 1) to
   interoperate successfully, even if configured in possibly suboptimal
   ways.  For any other value in the Mode field, the request is




Mills                        Informational                     [Page 16]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   discarded.  In broadcast (unsolicited) mode, the VN field is set to
   4, the Mode field is set to 5 (broadcast), and the Poll field set to
   the nearest integer base-2 logarithm of the poll interval.

      Note that it is highly desirable that a broadcast server also
      supports unicast clients.  This is so a potential broadcast client
      can calculate the propagation delay using a client/server exchange
      prior to switching to broadcast client (listen-only) mode.  By
      design, a manycast server is also a unicast server.  There does
      not seem to be a great advantage for a server to operate as both
      broadcast and manycast at the same time, although the protocol
      specification does not forbid it.

   A broadcast or manycast server does not send packets if not
   synchronized to a correctly operating reference source.  It may or
   may not respond to a client request if it is not synchronized, but
   the preferred option is to respond because this allows reachability
   to be determined regardless of synchronization state.  If the server
   has never synchronized to a reference source, the LI field is set to
   3 (unsynchronized).  Once synchronized to a reference source, the LI
   field is set to one of the other three values and remains at the last
   value set even if the reference source becomes unreachable or turns
   faulty.

   If the server is synchronized to a reference source, the Stratum
   field is set to 1, and the Reference Identifier field is set to the
   ASCII source identifier shown in Figure 2.  If the server is not
   synchronized, the Stratum field is set to zero, and the Reference
   Identifier field is set to an ASCII error identifier described below.

   The Precision field is set to reflect the maximum reading error of
   the system clock.  For all practical cases it is computed as the
   negative base-2 logarithm of the number of significant bits to the
   right of the decimal point in the NTP timestamp format.  The Root
   Delay and Root Dispersion fields are set to 0 for a primary server.

   The timestamp fields in the server message are set as follows.  If
   the server is unsynchronized or first coming up, all timestamp fields
   are set to zero, with one exception.  If the message is a reply to a
   previously received client request, the Transmit Timestamp field of
   the request is copied unchanged to the Originate Timestamp field of
   the reply.  It is important that this field be copied intact, as an
   NTP or SNTP client uses it to avoid bogus messages.

   If the server is synchronized, the Reference Timestamp is set to the
   time the last update was received from the reference source.  The
   Originate Timestamp field is set as in the unsynchronized case above.
   The Transmit Timestamp field is set to the time of day when the



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 17]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   message is sent.  In broadcast messages the Receive Timestamp field
   is set to zero and copied from the Transmit Timestamp field in other
   messages.  The following table summarizes these actions.

      Field Name             Unicast/Manycast             Broadcast
                             Request     Reply
      ----------------------------------------------------------------
      LI                     ignore      as needed       as needed

      VN                     1-4         copied from     4
                                         request

      Mode                   3           4               5

      Stratum                ignore      1               1

      Poll                   ignore      copied from     log2 poll
                                         request         interval

      Precision              ignore      -log2 server    -log2 server
                                         significant     significant
                                         bits            bits

      Root Delay             ignore      0               0

      Root Dispersion        ignore      0               0

      Reference Identifier   ignore      source ident    source ident

      Reference Timestamp    ignore      time of last    time of last
                                         source update   source update

      Originate Timestamp    ignore      copied from     0
                                         transmit
                                         timestamp

      Receive Timestamp      ignore      time of day     0

      Transmit Timestamp     (see text)  time of day     time of day

      Authenticator          optional    optional        optional

   There is some latitude on the part of most clients to forgive invalid
   timestamps, such as might occur when the server is first coming up or
   during periods when the reference source is inoperative.  The most
   important indicator of an unhealthy server is the Stratum field, in





Mills                        Informational                     [Page 18]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   which a value of 0 indicates an unsynchronized condition.  When this
   value is displayed, clients should discard the server message,
   regardless of the contents of other fields.

7.  Configuration and Management

   Initial setup for SNTP servers and clients can be done using a web
   client, if available, or a serial port, if not.  Some folks hoped
   that in-service management of NTP and SNTPv4 servers and clients
   could be performed using SNMP and a suitable MIB to be published, and
   this has happened in some commercial SNTP servers.  But, the means
   that have been used in the last two decades and probably will be used
   in the next is the NTP control and monitoring protocol defined in RFC
   1305.  Ordinarily, SNTP servers and clients are expected to operate
   with little or no site-specific configuration, other than specifying
   the client IP address, subnet mask, and gateway.

   Unicast clients must be provided with one or more designated server
   names or IP addresses.  If more than one server is provided, one can
   be used for active operation and one of the others for backup should
   the active one fail or show an error condition.  It is not normally
   useful to use more than one server at a time, as with millions of
   SNTP-enabled devices expected in the near future, such use would
   represent unnecessary drain on network and server resources.

   Broadcast servers and manycast clients must be provided with the TTL
   and local broadcast or multicast group address.  Unicast and manycast
   servers and broadcast clients may be configured with a list of
   address-mask pairs for access control, so that only those clients or
   servers known to be trusted will be accepted.  Multicast servers and
   clients must implement the IGMP protocol and be provided with the
   local broadcast or multicast group address as well.  The
   configuration data for cryptographic authentication is beyond the
   scope of this memo.

   There are several scenarios that provide automatic server discovery
   and selection for SNTP clients with no pre-specified server
   configuration.  For instance, a role server with CNAME such as
   pool.ntp.org returns a randomized list of volunteer secondary server
   addresses, and the client can select one or more as candidates.  For
   an IP subnet or LAN segment including an NTP or SNTP server, SNTP
   clients can be configured as broadcast clients.  The same approach
   can be used with multicast servers and clients.  In both cases,
   provision of an access control list is a good way to ensure that only
   trusted sources can be used to set the system clock.






Mills                        Informational                     [Page 19]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   In another scenario suitable for an extended network with significant
   network propagation delays, clients can be configured for manycast
   addresses, both upon initial startup and after some period when the
   currently selected unicast source has not been heard.  Following the
   defined protocol, the client binds to the server from which the first
   reply is received and continues operation in unicast mode.

8.  The Kiss-o'-Death Packet

   In the rambunctious Internet of today, it is imperative that some
   means be available to tell a client to stop making requests and to go
   somewhere else.  A recent experience involved a large number of
   home/office routers all configured to use a particular university
   time server.  Under some error conditions, a substantial fraction of
   these routers would send packets at intervals of one second.  The
   resulting traffic spike was dramatic, and extreme measures were
   required to diagnose the problem and to bring it under control.  The
   conclusion is that clients must respect the means available to
   targeted servers to stop them from sending packets.

   According to the NTP specification RFC 1305, if the Stratum field in
   the NTP header is 1, indicating a primary server, the Reference
   Identifier field contains an ASCII string identifying the particular
   reference clock type.  However, in RFC 1305 nothing is said about the
   Reference Identifier field if the Stratum field is 0, which is called
   out as "unspecified".  However, if the Stratum field is 0, the
   Reference Identifier field can be used to convey messages useful for
   status reporting and access control.  In NTPv4 and SNTPv4, packets of
   this kind are called Kiss-o'-Death (KoD) packets, and the ASCII
   messages they convey are called kiss codes.  The KoD packets got
   their name because an early use was to tell clients to stop sending
   packets that violate server access controls.

   In general, an SNTP client should stop sending to a particular server
   if that server returns a reply with a Stratum field of 0, regardless
   of kiss code, and an alternate server is available.  If no alternate
   server is available, the client should retransmit using an
   exponential-backoff algorithm described in the next section.

   The kiss codes can provide useful information for an intelligent
   client.  These codes are encoded in four-character ASCII strings left
   justified and zero filled.  The strings are designed for character
   displays and log files.  Usually, only a few of these codes can occur
   with SNTP clients, including DENY, RSTR, and RATE.  Others can occur
   more rarely, including INIT and STEP, when the server is in some
   special temporary condition.  Figure 3 shows a list of the kiss codes
   currently defined.  These are for informational purposes only; the
   list might be modified or extended in the future.



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 20]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


      Code    Meaning
      --------------------------------------------------------------
      ACST    The association belongs to a anycast server
      AUTH    Server authentication failed
      AUTO    Autokey sequence failed
      BCST    The association belongs to a broadcast server
      CRYP    Cryptographic authentication or identification failed
      DENY    Access denied by remote server
      DROP    Lost peer in symmetric mode
      RSTR    Access denied due to local policy
      INIT    The association has not yet synchronized for the first
              time
      MCST    The association belongs to a manycast server
      NKEY    No key found.  Either the key was never installed or
              is not trusted
      RATE    Rate exceeded.  The server has temporarily denied access
              because the client exceeded the rate threshold
      RMOT    Somebody is tinkering with the association from a remote
              host running ntpdc.  Not to worry unless some rascal has
              stolen your keys
      STEP    A step change in system time has occurred, but the
              association has not yet resynchronized

                           Figure 3.  Kiss Codes

9.  On Being a Good Network Citizen

   SNTP and its big brother NTP have been in explosive growth over the
   last few years, mirroring the growth of the Internet.  Just about
   every Internet appliance has some kind of NTP support, including
   Windows XP, Cisco routers, embedded controllers, and software systems
   of all kinds.  This is the first edition of the SNTP RFC where it has
   become necessary to lay down rules of engagement in the form of
   design criteria for SNTP client implementations.  This is necessary
   to educate software developers regarding the proper use of Internet
   time server resources as the Internet expands and demands on time
   servers increase, and to prevent the recurrence of the sort of
   problem mentioned above.

10.  Best Practices

   NTP and SNTP clients can consume considerable network and server
   resources if they are not good network citizens.  There are now
   consumer Internet commodity devices numbering in the millions that
   are potential customers of public and private NTP and SNTP servers.
   Recent experience strongly suggests that device designers pay
   particular attention to minimizing resource impacts, especially if
   large numbers of these devices are deployed.  The most important



Mills                        Informational                     [Page 21]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   design consideration is the interval between client requests, called
   the poll interval.  It is extremely important that the design use the
   maximum poll interval consistent with acceptable accuracy.

   1.  A client MUST NOT under any conditions use a poll interval less
       than 15 seconds.

   2.  A client SHOULD increase the poll interval using exponential
       backoff as performance permits and especially if the server does
       not respond within a reasonable time.

   3.  A client SHOULD use local servers whenever available to avoid
       unnecessary traffic on backbone networks.

   4.  A client MUST allow the operator to configure the primary and/or
       alternate server names or addresses in addition to or in place of
       a firmware default IP address.

   5.  If a firmware default server IP address is provided, it MUST be a
       server operated by the manufacturer or seller of the device or
       another server, but only with the operator's permission.

   6.  A client SHOULD use the Domain Name System (DNS) to resolve the
       server IP addresses, so the operator can do effective load
       balancing among a server clique and change IP address binding to
       canonical names.

   7.  A client SHOULD re-resolve the server IP address at periodic
       intervals, but not at intervals less than the time-to-live field
       in the DNS response.

   8.  A client SHOULD support the NTP access-refusal mechanism so that
       a server kiss-o'-death reply in response to a client request
       causes the client to cease sending requests to that server and to
       switch to an alternate, if available.

   The following algorithm can be used as a pattern for specific
   implementations.  It uses the following variables:

   Timer: This is a counter that decrements at a fixed rate.  When it
   reaches zero, a packet is sent, and the timer is initialized with the
   timeout for the next packet.

   Maximum timeout: This is the maximum timeout determined from the
   given oscillator frequency tolerance and the required accuracy.






Mills                        Informational                     [Page 22]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   Server Name: This is the DNS name of the server.  There may be more
   than one of them, to be selected by some algorithm not considered
   here.

   Server IP Address: This is the IPv4, IPv6, or OSI address of the
   server.

   If the firmware or documentation includes specific server names, the
   names should be those the manufacturer or seller operates as a
   customer convenience or those for which specific permission has been
   obtained from the operator.  A DNS request for a generic server name,
   such as ntp.mytimeserver.com, should result in a random selection of
   server IP addresses available for that purpose.  Each time a DNS
   request is received, a new randomized list is returned.  The client
   ordinarily uses the first address on the list.

      When candidate SNTP or NTP servers are selected, it is imperative
      to respect the server operator's conditions of access.  Lists of
      public servers and their conditions of access are available at
      www.ntp.org.  A semi-automatic server discovery scheme using DNS
      is described at that site.  Some ISPs operate public servers,
      although finding them via their help desks can be difficult.

   A well-behaved client operates as follows (note that steps 2-4
   constitute a synchronization loop):

   1.  Consider the specified frequency tolerance of the system clock
       oscillator.  Define the required accuracy of the system clock,
       then calculate the maximum timeout.  For instance, if the
       frequency tolerance is 200 parts per million (PPM) and the
       required accuracy is one minute, the maximum timeout is about 3.5
       days.  Use the longest maximum timeout possible given the system
       constraints to minimize time server aggregate load, but never
       make it less than 15 minutes.

   2.  When the client is first coming up or after reset, randomize the
       timeout from one to five minutes.  This is to minimize shock when
       3000 PCs are rebooted at the same time power is restored after a
       blackout.  Assume at this time that the IP address is unknown and
       that the system clock is unsynchronized.  Otherwise, use the
       timeout value as calculated in previous loop steps.  Note that it
       may be necessary to refrain from implementing the aforementioned
       random delay for some classes of International Computer Security
       Association (ICSA) certification.







Mills                        Informational                     [Page 23]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   3.  When the timer reaches zero, if the IP address is not known, send
       a DNS query packet; otherwise, send an NTP request packet to that
       address.  If no reply packet has been heard since the last
       timeout, double the timeout, but do not make it greater than the
       maximum timeout.  If primary and secondary time servers have been
       configured, alternate queries between the primary and secondary
       servers when no successful response has been received.

   4.  If a DNS reply packet is received, save the IP address and
       continue at step 2.  If a KoD packet is received, remove that
       time server from the list, activate the secondary time server,
       and continue at step 2.  If a received packet fails the sanity
       checks, drop that packet and also continue at step 2.  If a valid
       NTP packet is received, update the system clock, set the timeout
       to the maximum, and continue at step 2.

11.  Security Considerations

   Without cryptographic authentication, SNTPv4 service is vulnerable to
   disruption by misbehaving or hostile SNTP or NTP broadcast servers
   elsewhere in the Internet.  It is strongly recommended that access
   controls and/or cryptographic authentication means be provided for
   additional security.  This document includes protocol provisions for
   adding such security mechanisms, but it does not define the
   mechanisms themselves.  A separate document [MIL03] in preparation
   will define a cryptographic security mechanism for SNTP.

12.  Acknowledgements

   Jeff Learman was helpful in developing the OSI model for this
   protocol.  Ajit Thyagarajan provided valuable suggestions and
   corrections.

13.  Contributors

   D. Plonka

   J. Montgomery













Mills                        Informational                     [Page 24]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


14.  Informative References

   [BRA97]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
            Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [COL94]  Colella, R., Callon, R., Gardner, E., and Y. Rekhter,
            "Guidelines for OSI NSAP Allocation in the Internet", RFC
            1629, May 1994.

   [DEE89]  Deering, S., "Host extensions for IP multicasting", STD 5,
            RFC 1112, August 1989.

   [DEE98]  Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
            (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.

   [DOB91]  Shue, C., Haggerty, W., and K. Dobbins, "OSI connectionless
            transport services on top of UDP: Version 1", RFC 1240, June
            1991.

   [FUR94]  Furniss, P., "Octet Sequences for Upper-Layer OSI to Support
            Basic Communications Applications", RFC 1698, October 1994.

   [ISO86]  International Standards 8602 - Information Processing
            Systems - OSI: Connectionless Transport Protocol
            Specification.  International Standards Organization,
            December 1986.

   [MIL92]  Mills, D., "Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification,
            Implementation and Analysis", RFC 1305, March 1992.

   [MIL03]  Mills, D., "The Autokey Security Architecture, Protocol and
            Algorithms", http://eecis.udel.edu/~mills/database/reports/
            stime/stime.pdf, August 2003.

   [PAR93]  Partridge, C., Mendez, T., and W. Milliken, "Host Anycasting
            Service", RFC 1546, November 1993.

   [POS80]  Postel, J., "User Datagram Protocol", STD 6, RFC 768, August
            1980.

   [POS83]  Postel, J. and K. Harrenstien, "Time Protocol", STD 26, RFC
            868, May 1983.

   [SRI99]  Srisuresh, P. and M. Holdrege, "IP Network Address
            Translator (NAT) Terminology and Considerations", RFC 2663,
            August 1999.





Mills                        Informational                     [Page 25]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


   [SRI01]  Srisuresh, P. and K. Egevang, "Traditional IP Network
            Address Translator (Traditional NAT)", RFC 3022, January
            2001.

Author's Address

   David L. Mills
   Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
   University of Delaware
   Newark, DE 19716

   Phone: (302) 831-8247
   EMail: mills@udel.edu






































Mills                        Informational                     [Page 26]
^L
RFC 4330             SNTPv4 for IPv4, IPv6 and OSI          January 2006


Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

   This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
   contained in BCP 78 and at www.rfc-editor.org/copyright.html, and
   except as set forth therein, the authors retain all their rights.

   This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
   OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
   ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
   INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
   INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
   WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

   The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
   Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
   pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
   this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
   might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
   made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
   on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
   found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
   assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an
   attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
   such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
   specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
   http://www.ietf.org/ipr.

   The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
   copyrights, patents or patent applications, or other proprietary
   rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
   this standard.  Please address the information to the IETF at
   ietf-ipr@ietf.org.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
   Administrative Support Activity (IASA).







Mills                        Informational                     [Page 27]
^L