Network Time Protocol (NTP)
- Date
- 1985 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware, United States
- Credited to
- David L. Mills
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Mills designed NTP to synchronize computer clocks across the Internet to millisecond precision despite variable network latency, building on late-1970s transatlantic satellite time-synchronization experiments. It is one of the oldest Internet protocols still in use.
What it led to
- Standard Internet time synchronization
- Precision Time Protocol (PTP)