Subject: I-D Action: draft-stenn-ntp-leap-smear-refid-00.txt

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2016 19:47:47 -0700

A New Internet-Draft is available from the on-line Internet-Drafts directories.

        Title           : Network Time Protocol Leap Smear REFID
        Author          : Harlan Stenn
	Filename        : draft-stenn-ntp-leap-smear-refid-00.txt
	Pages           : 5
	Date            : 2016-03-14

Abstract:
   RFC 5905 [RFC5905] and earlier versions of NTP are the overwhelming
   method of distributing time on networks.  Leap Seconds will continue
   to exist for a good number of years' time, and since the timescale
   mandated by POSIX effectively ignores any instances where there are
   not 86,400 seconds' time in a day, something must be done to reliably
   synchronize clocks during the application of leap second corrections.
   One mechanism for dealing with the application that has recently
   become visible is to apply the leap second using a "smear", where the
   time reported by leap-second aware servers is gradually adjusted so
   there is no major disruption to time synchronization when processing
   a leap second.

   While leap second processing can be expected to be properly handled
   by up-to-date software and by time servers, there are large numbers
   of out-of-date software installations and client systems that are
   just not able to properly handle a leap second correction.

   This proposal offers a way for a system to generate a REFID that
   indicates that the time being supplied in the NTP packet already
   contains an amount of leap smear correction, and what that amount is.

The IETF datatracker status page for this draft is:
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-stenn-ntp-leap-smear-refid/

There's also a htmlized version available at:
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-stenn-ntp-leap-smear-refid-00

Please note that it may take a couple of minutes from the time of submission
until the htmlized version and diff are available at tools.ietf.org.

Internet-Drafts are also available by anonymous FTP at:
ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-drafts/