|
How Many NTP Clients Can a Time Server Handle?
An EndRun Technologies Network Time Server can handle up to 200,000 clients with no degradation in service
or accuracy. The following is an explanation of how to determine the number of clients a Network Time
Server can properly handle:
1. Determine how long it takes for a Time Server to process an NTP packet under lightly-loaded
conditions. This gives you the typical turnaround time which is how long it takes for the Server to get the
current UTC time, load it into the NTP reply packet and transmit. Turnaround time is easily determined
because the Server stamps both the receive time of the NTP request packet and the transmit time of the NTP
reply packet.
With a 133 MHz processor, the turnaround time on an EndRun Technologies Time Server is less than 500
microseconds.
2. Determine how many packets per second the Time Server can reliably process. This is done
by blasting NTP packets at the Time Server until it begins to drop packets. Then verify the processed
NTP packets to ensure that the turnaround time under these stressed conditions is the same as the turnaround
time under the lightly loaded conditions.
An EndRun Technologies Time Server can process 200/packets per second without dropping packets or
degrading accuracy.
3. After a client is synchronized, it will typically send an NTP packet to the Server once
every 1024 seconds. It is safe to assume that the clients don't all send NTP requests to the Server
at the same time because the NTP protocol has a randomization mechanism to prevent this.
Number of Clients = (Number of Packets per Second) multiplied by 1024
This yields a number of 204,800 clients for an EndRun Technologies Network Time Server.
|
|
