[time-nuts] Looking for advice to get a submillisecond setup

Matt mattator at gmail.com
Thu Feb 19 12:11:08 EST 2015


Hi,

My university would like to have a <1ms precise source of time to do
some networking experiments (measure one way propagation delays
etc...). So I wandered on the internet to find the best choice with a
budget of ~1000€ (~1100 American dollars).
I've been overwhelmed by the number of possibilities (atomic
clocks/GPS signal etc...) and as no price appear on the seller
websites, it's difficult to rule out options.

I hope it's within the scope of the mailing list but I would like some
advice on good hardware with the previous constraint (budget ~ 1100 $,
precision < 1ms). We can install an antenna in clear horizon. From
what I gather, the GPS option looks a good choice but then I am unsure
what the underlying NTP server would look like. It would be in a
computer room (some temperature variation is expected, even though
there is cooling).
Meinberg looks great but I believe they are too expansive for our budget.
I've seen that one cheap http://www.gpsntp.com/gps-ntp-services.php
but this feedback
(http://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/23e72i/gps_ntpserver_rack_mount_device_minireview/)
is not fantastic.
I also read good comments on Garmin 18 hardware but it is so cheap I
wonder if it precise enough.

I wonder if we should buy a specific box or if we could not plug the
antenna to a linux box with gpsd/NTPd on it ?

Any advice ?

Best regards
Matt

Nb: the FOSDEM talks did a good job advertising your mailing list :)


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