[ntpwg] Issues with the NTP draft -06

[Brian Utterback]

One of the key pieces you need to remember is that the while the refid
should be unique, unless the data you want to use for the server's
refid is already in the data somewhere that arrives from the server,
the refid must be derivable from the client.

To answer Heiko's comment about the stratum level, the problem with
stratum level is the propagation delay when the level changes. However,
the reason having only two levels of loop detection works is that the
stratum level generally works for larger loops.

I have always wondered if there might not be a way to get better
loop detection if you treated the refid as a sort of shift register.
Each server would choose a random one byte number at shift that number
on the the refid it passes to the client. Then the client would look
at each byte of the refid from all of its servers. If the higher order
byte matches the clients random byte, avoid it if you can. If the
top two bytes match the lowest byte of the client's server's refid and
the the client's own byte, reject it. Reject if more bytes match.
-- 
blu

If global warming is about climate change, isn't
trying to prevent it actually anti-climatic?
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Brian Utterback - Solaris RPE, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Ph:877-259-7345, Em:brian.utterback-at-ess-you-enn-dot-kom