Blogs by David
Tech blog on web, security & embedded
Our Statime project now provides strong synchronization performance and accurate synchronization error estimates without manual tuning for any specific hardware, because it automatically determines the main uncertainty parameters for a Kalman-based clock servo. This process is described in a scientific paper, soon to be published by the IEEE.
July 8, 2024
Statime vs Linux PTP: Comparison of precision
As part of the development of our Precision Time Protocol implementation, Statime, we want to know how it performs compared to other implementations of PTP.
To figure this out, last April we visited VSL, the Dutch National Metrology Institute. There, we performed comparitive precision tests between Statime and Linux PTP.
June 7, 2024
Authentication for PTP
PTP was originally designed for networks in which all devices were ultimately trusted. In version 1, no security mechanism was present, and version 2 only provided an experimental mechanism. However, with version 2.1 of the PTP standard (IEEE 1588-2019) there is now a normative security mechanism in section 16.14.
May 14, 2024
Hacking time: how you can control anyone's clock
Messing around with people's clocks can be a great source of practical jokes. Even nowadays, with many people getting their time digitally, this is not as impossible as you might think. (And the month of April, with the switch to summer time and April Fool's Day, provided the perfect timing for this experiment, of course...)
November 29, 2023
Pendulum long-term goals: usability and security (video)
I was invited by OCP-TAP to join them in their 87th Project Call to talk about Pendulum, our Rust implementations of NTP and PTP. The recording of this call on 8 Nov 2023 is now available.
November 8, 2023
Statime continues: Boundary Clocks and Master Ports
About one year ago, Tweede Golf announced "Statime", a Rust implementation of the Precision Time Protocol (PTP). The result of that first phase was a working proof of concept. Quite a bit has changed since then.
It is common wisdom that one should avoid implementing their own cryptography if at all possible. This is generally good wisdom as writing correct cryptography code can be very tricky and takes quite a bit of time to get done right.
March 15, 2021
Kubernetes access with your yubikey
KubiKey as a project started out with one main goal: streamline and make more secure the process of accessing the kubernetes cluster used by Tweede golf.