Managing the System Time and Date
You can manage the system time and date on your LoRaWAN Gateway, either by using automatic configuration, such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP), or by using the GPS as a source for the clock.
Network Time Protocol (NTP)
Network Time Protocol (NTP) is designed to time-synchronize a network of devices. NTP runs over User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which runs over IP. NTP is documented in RFC 1305 and RFC 5905.
An NTP network usually gets its time from an authoritative time source, such as a radio clock or an atomic clock attached to a time server. NTP then distributes this time across the network. NTP is extremely efficient; no more than one packet per minute is necessary to synchronize two devices to within a millisecond of one another.
The communications between devices running NTP (known as associations ) are usually statically configured; each device is given the IP address of all devices with which it should form associations. Accurate timekeeping is possible by exchanging NTP messages between each pair of devices with an association. However, in a LAN environment, NTP can be configured to use IP broadcast messages instead. This alternative reduces configuration complexity because each device can simply be configured to send or receive broadcast messages. However, in that case, information flow is one-way only.
NTP Version 4
NTP version 4 is implemented on the modem. NTPv4 is an extension of NTP version 3. NTPv4 supports both IPv4 and IPv6 and is backward-compatible with NTPv3.
NTPv4 provides these capabilities:
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Suppport for IPv6. (Note that IXM supports only IPv4.)
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Improved security compared to NTPv3. The NTPv4 protocol provides a security framework based on public key cryptography and standard X509 certificates.
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Automatic calculation of the time-distribution hierarchy for a network. Using specific multicast groups, NTPv4 automatically configures the hierarchy of the servers to achieve the best time accuracy for the lowest bandwidth cost. This feature leverages site-local IPv6 multicast addresses.
Configuring NTP Server
Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to configure the NTP server:
Procedure
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 |
configure terminal |
Enter global configuration mode. |
Step 2 |
ntp server {ip name | address address } |
Defines the NTP server that provides the clocking source for the modem. |
Step 3 |
exit |
Return to privileged EXEC mode. |
Step 4 |
show ntp status |
(Optional) Show NTP status to verify the configuration. |
Step 5 |
show ntp associations |
(Optional) Show the NTP associations with upstream servers. |
Step 6 |
copy running-config startup-config |
(Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file. |
What to do next
To disable the NTP service, use the no ntp server hostname global configuration command.