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-<HTML>
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- <TITLE>Arcron MSF Receiver
-</TITLE>
-</HEAD>
-<BODY>
-
-<H3>
-Arcron MSF Receiver</H3>
-
-<HR>
-<H4>
-Synopsis</H4>
-Address: 127.127.27.<I>u</I>
-<BR>Reference ID: <TT>MSFa</TT>
-<BR>Driver ID: <TT>MSF_ARCRON</TT>
-<BR>Serial Port: <TT>/dev/arc<I>u</I></TT>; 300 baud, 8-bits, 2-stop, no
-parity
-<BR>Features: <TT>tty_clk</TT>
-<H4>
-Description</H4>
-This driver supports the Arcron MSF receiver, and would probably also support
-the DCF77 variant of the same clock. The clock reports its ID as ``<TT>MSFa</TT>''
-to indicate MSF as a source and the use of the ARCRON driver.
-
-<P>This documentation describes version V1.1 (1997/06/23) of the source
-and has been tested (amongst others) against ntpd3-5.90 on Solaris-1 (SunOS
-4.1.3_U1 on an SS1 serving as a router and firewall) and against ntpd3-5.90
-on Solaris-2.5 (on a SS1+ and TurboSPARC 170MHz). This code will probably
-work, and show increased stability, reduced jitter and more efficiency
-(fewer context switches) with the <TT>tty_clk</TT> discipline/STREAMS module
-installed, but this has not been tested. For a to-do list see the comments
-at the start of the code.
-
-<P>This code has been significantly slimmed down since the V1.0 version,
-roughly halving the memory footprint of its code and data.
-
-<P>This driver is designed to allow the unit to run from batteries as designed,
-for something approaching the 2.5 years expected in the usual stand-alone
-mode, but no battery-life measurements have been taken.
-
-<P>Much of this code is originally from the other refclock driver files
-with thanks. The code was originally made to work with the clock by <A HREF="mailto:derek@toybox.demon.co.uk">Derek
-Mulcahy</A>, with modifications by <A HREF="mailto:d@hd.org">Damon Hart-Davis</A>.
-Thanks also to <A HREF="mailto:lyndond@sentinet.co.uk">Lyndon David</A>
-for some of the specifications of the clock.
-
-<P>There is support for a Tcl/Tk monitor written by Derek Mulcahy that
-examines the output stats; see the <A HREF="http://www2.exnet.com/NTP/ARC/ARC.htm">ARC
-Rugby MSF Receiver</A> page for more details and the code.
-
-<P>Look at the notes at the start of the code for further information;
-some of the more important details follow.
-
-<P>The driver interrogates the clock at each poll (ie every 64s by default)
-for a timestamp. The clock responds at the start of the next second (with
-the start bit of the first byte being on-time). The time is in `local'
-format, including the daylight savings adjustment when it is in effect.
-The driver code converts the time back to UTC.
-
-<P>The clock claims to be accurate to within about 20ms of the MSF-broadcast
-time, and given the low data transmission speed from clock to host, and
-the fact that the clock is not in continuous sync with MSF, it seems sensible
-to set the `precision' of this clock to -5 or -4, -4 being used in this
-code, which builds in a reported dispersion of over 63ms (ie says ``This
-clock is not very good.''). You can improve the reported precision to -4
-(and thus reduce the base dispersion to about 31ms) by setting the fudge
-<TT>flag3</TT> to <TT>1</TT>.
-
-<P>Even a busy and slow IP link can yield lower dispersions than this from
-polls of primary time servers on the Internet, which reinforces the idea
-that this clock should be used as a backup in case of problems with such
-an IP link, or in the unfortunate event of failure of more accurate sources
-such as GPS.
-
-<P>By default this clock reports itself to be at stratum 2 rather than
-the usual stratum 0 for a refclock, because it is not really suited to
-be used as other than a backup source. The stratum reported can be changed
-with the <TT>fudge</TT> directive to be whatever you like. After careful
-monitoring of your clock, and appropriate choice of the <TT>time1</TT>
-fudge factor to remove systematic errors in the clock's reported time,
-you might fudge the clock to stratum 1 to allow a stratum-2 secondary server
-to sync to it.
-
-<P>The driver code arranges to resync the clock to MSF at intervals of
-a little less than an hour (deliberately avoiding the same time each hour
-to avoid any systematic problems with the signal or host). Whilst resyncing,
-the driver supplements the normal polls for time from the clock with polls
-for the reception signal quality reported by the clock. If the signal quality
-is too low (0--2 out of a range of 0--5), we chose not to trust the clock
-until the next resync (which we bring forward by about half an hour). If
-we don't catch the resync, and so don't know the signal quality, we do
-trust the clock (because this would generally be when the signal is very
-good and a resync happens quickly), but we still bring the next resync
-forward and reduce the reported precision (and thus increase reported dispersion).
-
-<P>If we force resyncs to MSF too often we will needlessly exhaust the
-batteries the unit runs from. During clock resync this driver tries to
-take enough time samples to avoid <TT>ntpd</TT> losing sync in case this
-clock is the current peer. By default the clock would only resync to MSF
-about once per day, which would almost certainly not be acceptable for
-NTP purposes.
-
-<P>The driver does not force an immediate resync of the clock to MSF when
-it starts up to avoid excessive battery drain in case <TT>ntpd</TT> is
-going to be repeatedly restarted for any reason, and also to allow enough
-samples of the clock to be taken for <TT>ntpd</TT> to sync immediately
-to this clock (and not remain unsynchronised or to sync briefly to another
-configured peer, only to hop back in a few poll times, causing unnecessary
-disturbance). This behaviour should not cause problems because the driver
-will not accept the timestamps from the clock if the status flag delivered
-with the time code indicates that the last resync attempt was unsuccessful,
-so the initial timestamps will be close to reality, even if with up to
-a day's clock drift in the worst case (the clock by default resyncs to
-MSF once per day).
-
-<P>The clock has a peculiar RS232 arrangement where the transmit lines
-are powered from the receive lines, presumably to minimise battery drain.
-This arrangement has two consequences:
-<UL>
-<LI>
-Your RS232 interface must drive both +ve and -ve</LI>
-
-<LI>
-You must (in theory) wait for an echo and a further 10ms between characters</LI>
-</UL>
-This driver, running on standard Sun hardware, seems to work fine; note
-the use of the <TT>send_slow()</TT> routine to queue up command characters
-to be sent once every two seconds.
-
-<P>Three commands are sent to the clock by this driver. Each command consists
-of a single letter (of which only the bottom four bits are significant),
-followed by a CR (ASCII 13). Each character sent to the clock should be
-followed by a delay to allow the unit to echo the character, and then by
-a further 10ms. Following the echo of the command string, there may be
-a response (ie in the cae of the <TT>g</TT> and <TT>o</TT> commands below),
-which in the case of the <TT>o</TT> command may be delayed by up to 1 second
-so as the start bit of the first byte of the response can arrive on time.
-The commands and their responses are:
-<DL>
-<DT>
-<TT>g</TT> CR</DT>
-
-<DD>
-Request for signal quality. Answer only valid during (late part of) resync
-to MSF signal. The response consists of two characters as follows:</DD>
-
-<OL>
-<DL compact>
-<DT>
-bit 7</DT>
-
-<DD>
-parity</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 6</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 5</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 4</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 3</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 2</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 1</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 0</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 0 if no reception attempt at the moment, = 1 if reception attempt (ie
-resync) in progress</DD>
-</DL>
-
-<DL compact>
-<DT>
-bit 7</DT>
-
-<DD>
-parity</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 6</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 5</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 4</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 3</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 2--0</DT>
-
-<DD>
-reception signal quality in the range 0--5 (very poor to very good); if
-in the range 0--2 no successful reception is to be expected. The reported
-value drops to zero when not resyncing, ie when first returned byte is
-not `3'.</DD>
-</DL>
-</OL>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>h</TT> CR</DT>
-
-<DD>
-Request to resync to MSF. Can take up from about 30s to 360s. Drains batteries
-so should not be used excessively. After this the clock time and date should
-be correct and the phase within 20ms of time as transmitted from Rugby
-MSF (remember to allow for propagation time). By default the clock resyncs
-once per day shortly after 2am (presumably to catch transitions to/from
-daylight saving time quickly). With this driver code we resync at least
-once per hour to minimise clock wander.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>o</TT> CR</DT>
-
-<DD>
-Request timestamp. Start bit of first byte of response is on-time, so may
-be delayed up to 1 second. Note that when the BST mode is in effect the
-time is GMT/UTC +0100, ie an hour ahead of UTC to reflect local time in
-the UK. The response data is as follows:</DD>
-
-<OL>
-<LI>
-hours tens (hours range from 00 to 23)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-hours units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-minutes tens (minutes range from 00 to 59)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-minutes units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-seconds tens (seconds presumed to range from 00 to 60 to allow for leap
-second)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-seconds units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-day of week 1 (Monday) to 7 (Sunday)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-day of month tens (day ranges from 01 to 31)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-day of month units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-month tens (months range from 01 to 12)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-month units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-year tens (years range from 00 to 99)</LI>
-
-<LI>
-year units</LI>
-
-<LI>
-BST/UTC status</LI>
-
-<DL compact>
-<DT>
-bit 7</DT>
-
-<DD>
-parity</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 6</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 5</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 4</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 3</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 2</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if UTC is in effect (reverse of bit 1)</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 1</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if BST is in effect (reverse of bit 2)</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 0</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if BST/UTC change pending</DD>
-</DL>
-
-<LI>
-clock status</LI>
-
-<DL compact>&nbsp;
-<DT>
-bit 7</DT>
-
-<DD>
-parity</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 6</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 0</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 5</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 4</DT>
-
-<DD>
-always 1</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 3</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if low battery is detected</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 2</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if last resync failed (though officially undefined for the MSF clock)</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 1</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if at least one reception attempt since 0230 for the MSF clock was
-successful (0300 for the DCF77 clock)</DD>
-
-<DT>
-bit 0</DT>
-
-<DD>
-= 1 if the clock has valid time---reset to zero when clock is reset (eg
-at power-up), and set to 1 after first successful resync attempt.</DD>
-</DL>
-</OL>
-The driver only accepts time from the clock if the bottom three bits of
-the status byte are <TT>011</TT>. The leap-year logic for computing day-in-year
-is only valid until 2099, and the clock will ignore stamps from the clock
-that claim BST is in effect in the first hour of each year. If the UK parliament
-decides to move us to +0100/+0200 time as opposed to the current +0000/+0100
-time, it is not clear what effect that will have on the time broadcast
-by MSF, and therefore on this driver's usefulness.</DL>
-A typical <TT>ntp.conf</TT> configuration file for this driver might be:
-<PRE># hostname(n) means we expect (n) to be the stratum at which hostname runs.
-
-#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# SYNCHRONISATION PARTNERS
-# ========================
-
-# Our betters...
-server 127.127.27.0 # ARCRON MSF radio clock(1).
-# Fudge stratum and other features as required.
-# ADJUST time1 VALUE FOR YOUR HOST, CLOCK AND LOCATION!
-fudge 127.127.27.0 stratum 1 time1 0.016 flag3 1 flag4 1
-
-peer 11.22.33.9 # tick(1--2).
-peer 11.22.33.4 # tock(3), boot/NFS server.
-
-# This shouldn't get swept away unless left untouched for a long time.
-driftfile /var/tmp/ntp.drift
-
-#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# RESTRICTIONS
-# ============
-
-# By default, don't trust and don't allow modifications.&nbsp; Ignore in fact.
-restrict default ignore notrust nomodify
-
-# Allow others in our subnet to check us out...
-restrict 11.22.33.0 mask 255.255.255.0 nomodify notrust
-
-# Trust our peers for time.&nbsp; Don't trust others in case they are insane.
-restrict 127.127.27.0 nomodify
-restrict 11.22.33.4 nomodify
-restrict 11.22.33.9 nomodify
-
-# Allow anything from the local host.
-restrict 127.0.0.1</PRE>
-There are a few <TT>#define</TT>s in the code that you might wish to play
-with:
-<DL>
-<DT>
-<TT>ARCRON_KEEN</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-With this defined, the code is relatively trusting of the clock, and assumes
-that you will have the clock as one of a few time sources, so will bend
-over backwards to use the time from the clock when available and avoid
-<TT>ntpd</TT> dropping sync from the clock where possible. You may wish
-to undefine this, especially if you have better sources of time or your
-reception is ropey. However, there are many checks built in even with this
-flag defined.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>ARCRON_OWN_FILTER</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-When defined, the code uses its own median-filter code rather than that
-available in <TT>ntp_refclock.c</TT> since the latter seems to have a minor
-bug, at least in version 3-5.90. If this bug goes away this flag should
-be turned off to avoid duplication of code. (The bug, if that's what it
-is, causes the last raw offset to be used rather than the median offset.)</DD>
-
-
-<P>Without this defined (and without <TT>ARCRON_MULTIPLE_SAMPLES</TT> below)
-a typical set of offsets reported and used to drive the clock-filter algorithm
-is (oldest last):
-<PRE>filtoffset=&nbsp; -4.32&nbsp; -34.82&nbsp;&nbsp; -0.78&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 0.89&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 2.76&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 4.58&nbsp;&nbsp; -3.92&nbsp;&nbsp; -2.17</PRE>
-Look at that spike!
-
-<P>With this defined a typical set of offsets is:
-<PRE>filtoffset=&nbsp; -7.06&nbsp;&nbsp; -7.06&nbsp;&nbsp; -2.91&nbsp;&nbsp; -2.91&nbsp;&nbsp; -2.91&nbsp;&nbsp; -1.27&nbsp;&nbsp; -9.54&nbsp;&nbsp; -6.70</PRE>
-with the repeated values being some evidence of outlyers being discarded.
-<DT>
-<TT>ARCRON_MULTIPLE_SAMPLES</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-When is defined, we regard each character in the returned timecode as at
-a known delay from the start of the second, and use the smallest (most
-negative) offset implied by any such character, ie with the smallest kernel-induced
-display, and use that. This helps to reduce jitter and spikes.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>ARCRON_LEAPSECOND_KEEN</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-When is defined, we try to do a resync to MSF as soon as possible in the
-first hour of the morning of the first day of the first and seventh months,
-ie just after a leap-second insertion or deletion would happen if it is
-going to. This should help compensate for the fact that this clock does
-not continuously sample MSF, which compounds the fact that MSF itself gives
-no warning of an impending leap-second event. This code did not seem functional
-at the leap-second insertion of 30th June 1997 so is by default disabled.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>PRECISION</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Currently set to <TT>-4</TT>, but you may wish to set it to <TT>-5</TT>
-if you are more conservative, or to <TT>-6</TT> if you have particularly
-good experience with the clock and you live on the edge. Note that the
-<TT>flag3</TT> fudge value will improve the reported dispersion one notch
-if clock signal quality is known good. So maybe just leave this alone.
-B^)</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>NSAMPLES</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Should be at least 3 to help smooth out sampling jitters. Can be more,
-but if made too long can make <TT>ntpd</TT> overshoot on clock corrections
-and can hold onto bad samples longer than you would like. With this set
-to 4 and <TT>NKEEP</TT> set to 3 this allows the occasional bad sample
-(in my experience less than 1 value in 10) to be dropped. (Note that there
-seems to be some sort of `beat' effect in the offset with a periodicity
-of about 7 samples as of this writing (1997/05/11) still under investigation;
-a filter of approximately this length should be able to almost completely
-suppress this effect.) Note that if the fudge-factor <TT>flag3</TT> is
-set to 1, a larger <TT>NSAMPLES</TT> is used.</DD>
-</DL>
-
-<H4>
-Monitor Data</H4>
-Each timecode is written to the <TT>clockstats</TT> file with a signal
-quality value appended (`0'--`5' as reported by the clock, or `6' for unknown).
-
-<P>Each resync and result (plus gaining or losing MSF sync) is logged to
-the system log at level <TT>LOG_NOTICE</TT>; note that each resync drains
-the unit's batteries, so the syslog entry seems justified.
-
-<P>Syslog entries are of the form:
-<PRE>May 10 10:15:24 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: unit 0: sending resync command
-May 10 10:17:32 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: sync finished, signal quality 5: OK, will use clock
-May 10 11:13:01 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: unit 0: sending resync command
-May 10 11:14:06 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: sync finished, signal quality -1: UNKNOWN, will use clock anyway
-May 10 11:41:49 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: unit 0: sending resync command
-May 10 11:43:57 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: sync finished, signal quality 5: OK, will use clock
-May 10 12:39:26 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: unit 0: sending resync command
-May 10 12:41:34 oolong ntpd[615]: ARCRON: sync finished, signal quality 3: OK, will use clock</PRE>
-
-<H4>
-Fudge Factors</H4>
-
-<DL>
-<DT>
-<TT>time1 <I>time</I></TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Specifies the time offset calibration factor, in seconds and fraction,
-with default 0.0. On a Sun SparcStation 1 running SunOS 4.1.3_U1, with
-the receiver in London, a value of 0.020 (20ms) seems to be appropriate.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>time2 <I>time</I></TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Not currently used by this driver.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>stratum <I>number</I></TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Specifies the driver stratum, in decimal from 0 to 15, with default 0.
-It is suggested that the clock be fudged to stratum 1 so this it is used
-a backup time source rather than a primary when more accurate sources are
-available.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>refid <I>string</I></TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Specifies the driver reference identifier, an ASCII string from one to
-four characters, with default <TT>MSFa</TT>.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>flag1 0 | 1</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Not used by this driver.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>flag2 0 | 1</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-Not used by this driver.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>flag3 0 | 1</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-If set to 1, better precision is reported (and thus lower dispersion) while
-clock's received signal quality is known to be good.</DD>
-
-<DT>
-<TT>flag4 0 | 1</TT></DT>
-
-<DD>
-If set to 1, a longer-than-normal (8-stage rather than 4-stage) median
-filter is used, to provide some extra smoothing of clock output and reduction
-in jitter, at the cost of extra clock overshoot. Probably not advisable
-unless the server using this clock has other sources it can use to help
-mitigate the overshoot.</DD>
-</DL>
-
-<H4>
-Additional Information</H4>
-<A HREF="refclock.htm">Reference Clock Drivers</A>
-
-<P><A HREF="http://www2.exnet.com/NTP/ARC/ARC.htm">ARC Rugby MSF Receiver</A>
-page&nbsp;
-<HR>
-<ADDRESS>
-Damon Hart-Davis (d@hd.org)</ADDRESS>
-
-</BODY>
-</HTML>