Our NTP Infrastructure Since 2005

Timeline: from 2005 to today

Every step of this infrastructure has been driven by the same conviction: time synchronization is a public good of the Internet that deserves serious and lasting investment.

2005

First NTP servers

Fresh out of university, the first NTP servers are put into service — including a server I managed for a friend's father. The goal is simple: contribute to the global NTP pool and participate in the community effort. At the time, it was driven by a thirst for learning and a certain vision of the Internet — you build, you share, you improve together.

2007

First public traces

The contribution to the global NTP pool becomes publicly visible. The domain ntp.demongeot.biz is already online and referenced in Web archives.

Proof: Archive ntp.demongeot.biz (January 2007) • NTP Pool (February 2007)

2010

Scaling up

Multiplication of servers in the pool. The infrastructure moves beyond a single server to become a coherent set of machines dedicated to time synchronization, spread across multiple points of presence.

2015

Upgrade to Stratum 1

Deployment of the first Stratum 1 server equipped with a GNSS receiver (GPS/Galileo) with PPS (Pulse Per Second) signal. The infrastructure moves from secondary synchronization (Stratum 2) to a direct time reference, with microsecond-level accuracy. Understand NTP stratum levels →

2016

RDEM Systems SAS founded

Foundation of RDEM Systems. The NTP infrastructure, previously operated personally, begins its transition to a professional framework. The expertise accumulated over 11 years becomes a company asset.

2025

AS206014, NTS and official transfer

A pivotal year. Acquisition and deployment of AS206014 — NTP servers are now operated on RDEM Systems' own network, with full control over routing, peering, and quality of service. Direct connection to Parisian IXPs.

Late 2025: activation of NTS (Network Time Security) across the entire infrastructure, systematic deployment of dual-stack IPv4/IPv6, support for 8 different TLDs for maximum DNS redundancy.

Official transfer of the entire historical NTP infrastructure to RDEM Systems. What was born as a volunteer contribution in 2005 is now a structured technical pillar of the company, with 20+ years of continuous operational experience.

Proof of history

In the NTP world, longevity is not just a matter of prestige. An operator who has maintained servers for over 20 years has weathered dozens of protocol updates, leap seconds, hardware failures, and network evolutions. This experience translates into proven reliability.

Current architecture

RDEM Systems' NTP infrastructure is built on a strict hierarchy, from the GNSS receiver to end clients:

Two structural choices are documented separately: the selection criteria for the Equinix datacenters (power, peering, neutrality) and the DNS resolution spread across four distinct ASNs in line with RFC 2182. The second protocol matters almost as much as the first: an NTP server you can no longer resolve is no longer reachable.

Infrastructure in numbers

Our philosophy

The same infrastructure also powers The Speaking Clock, our free phone-accessible talking clock service — a concrete consumer-facing example of what Stratum 1 NTP can deliver.

What started as a volunteer contribution has become, over time, a core technical asset. But the philosophy hasn't changed:

We don't sell NTP services. We operate a public infrastructure because we believe that time synchronization is a public good. The same conviction that drove the first server in 2005 guides our decisions today:

• Contributing to the NTP pool: our servers handle millions of daily requests for the community
• Maintaining reference quality: maximum reliability score, sub-millisecond accuracy
• Investing for the long term: 20+ years of continuous operation, and counting
• Sharing knowledge: technical documentation, guides, and experience reports

Going further

This infrastructure is documented across other, more technical pages that detail each of the components mentioned above:

• Enable NTS on Chrony in 5 minutes — the practical guide to the cryptographic layer deployed across our servers in late 2025.
• NTP stratum hierarchy — where our servers sit (Stratum 1 GPS, Stratum 2) and why this hierarchy matters in NTP.
• Sovereign NTP in France — the reasoning behind operating a time infrastructure from France, on AS206014.
• RDEM Speaking Clock by phone — the consumer-facing service powered by this same Stratum 1 reference.
• AS206014, our ASN — technical sheet of the network that hosts our NTP: peering, IPv4/IPv6, Parisian IXPs.
• BGP Looking-glass — public tool to observe live the routing of our prefixes from various network vantage points.