Re: [gpsd-dev] Clarifications needed for the time-service HOWTO

[Miroslav Lichvar]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2013 at 11:40:20AM -0400, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> Miroslav Lichvar <address@hidden>:
> > > Note that a chimer can be a poor performer (what the inventor of NTP
> > > whimsically calls a "falseticker") for either of two reasons. It may
> > > be shipping bad time, or the best routes between you and it have large
> > > latency variations.  (Large but fixed latencies can be compensated out
> > > using a fudge.)
> > 
> > A source will be marked as falseticker only if it serves bad time or
> > is outvoted by multiple sources with incorrect time, not when the
> > delay is large or asymmetrical, because the large delay is included in
> > the intervals used in the NTP source selection algorithm.
> 
> I wasn't talking about large or asymmetrical but *variable*.  Are we
> really disagreeing here?

I'm just suggesting to remove "(what the inventor of NTP whimsically
calls a "falseticker")" from that text. A falseticker is a source that
doesn't agree with other sources, large jitter doesn't imply that.

The last sentence in the paragraph should possibly be removed too.
I don't think there is a fudge option to compensate for an asymmetry
in the network delay. Large symmetric delays are not a problem.

-- 
Miroslav Lichvar