Internet pioneer Vint Cerf shared on Thursday that Dr. David L. Mills, the creator of Network Time Protocol (NTP), passed away at 85 on January 17, 2024. The announcement was conveyed through the Internet Society mailing list, followed by Cerf's notification by Mills' daughter, Leigh.
Cerf expressed Mills' iconic role in the early Internet after developing the Network Time Protocol (NTP) in 1985, which is integral for synchronizing time across the digital landscape.
Who Is David L. Mills?
In 1985, Dr. Mills revolutionized digital timekeeping with the creation of the NTP, offering a standardized and accurate solution for synchronizing time across varied computer systems globally. This protocol, now a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure, addresses the inherent challenge of coordinating time in a world where computers operate with individual internal clocks.
During the 1970s at COMSAT, Mills identified the need for synchronized time across computer networks, resulting in NTP, which aligns computers within tens of milliseconds. Operational on billions of devices, NTP plays a pivotal role in ensuring time coordination across continents.
Despite challenges in maintaining and evolving the protocol during the Internet's expansion, Mills, as highlighted in a 2022 New Yorker profile, emphasized the vital role of open-source software developers. Born with glaucoma and losing his sight, Mills passed protocol control to Harlan Stenn in the 2000s due to visual difficulties.
Beyond NTP, Mills made significant contributions to the Internet architecture, including inventing the pioneering "Fuzzball router" for NSFNET, creating an early FTP implementation, inspiring "ping," and serving as the inaugural chairman of the Internet Architecture Task Force.
Recognized for his impactful work, Mills achieved Fellow status with the Association for Computing Machinery in 1999 and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2002, receiving the IEEE Internet Award in 2013.
With a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1971, Mills, an emeritus professor at the University of Delaware, retired in 2008 after 22 years of teaching. His enduring legacy extends beyond NTP, shaping the landscape of digital connectivity.
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Network Time Protocol (NTP) Explained
The NTP serves as an internet protocol facilitating the synchronization of computer clock time sources within a network. Integral to the TCP/IP suite, NTP encompasses both the protocol itself and the client-server programs running on computers. It is designed with a focus on high fault tolerance, scalability, and support for time synchronization.
Moreover, the NTP time synchronization process involves the initiation of a time-request exchange between the NTP client and server. Subsequently, the client calculates link delay and local offset, adjusting its local clock to match the server's.
Typically, about six exchanges over five to 10 minutes are needed for the initial clock setting, with subsequent updates occurring approximately every 10 minutes through User Datagram Protocol (UDP) on port 123.
NTP's significance lies in its role in ensuring accurate time across computer networks, crucial for various functions like distributed procedures, security mechanisms, file system updates, and network acceleration. It relies on thousands of servers globally, equipped with precise atomic and Global Positioning System clocks.
While primary time servers use specialized receivers, NTP achieves synchronization with extreme precision, down to 1 millisecond in a local area network (LAN) and within tens of milliseconds over the internet, using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Notably, NTP does not account for time zones, leaving such computations to the host.
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