Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysis of Ethernet Traffic Patterns on NTP Servers at CSIR NPL

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
MAPAN Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers are specialized timekeeping devices that provide synchronized and accurate time information to networked devices, ensuring precise coordination and reliability in various critical applications. CSIR-NPL is the National Metrology Institute of India which has the responsibility of time dissemination to the nation. Network time dissemination is one of the services which provide the time synchronization facility over the network via NTP servers. These NTP servers are designated as stratum 1 NTP servers in the network hierarchy as they are taking time from the authoritative atomic clock. NTP servers at CSIR-NPL are available in public domain for time dissemination. Many critical stakeholders such as internet service providers, data centres, various government organizations are the primary customers of CSIR-NPL for time services over the network. Hence, to understand the traffic dynamics coming towards the NTP servers is essential. This study aims to analyze Ethernet traffic patterns directed towards NTP servers at CSIR NPL using open-source monitoring software, i.e., Zabbix and Grafana. The study captures Ethernet traffic throughput in bits per second (bps) coming on NTP servers located at CSIR-NPL. These NTP servers are part of stacks of NTP servers responsible for disseminating Indian Standard Time over the internet. The study involves an investigation of Ethernet throughput to understand the NTP requests (packets per second) arriving for time synchronization and the pattern of incoming NTP request traffic on these servers. To evaluate NTP requests from Ethernet throughput, the conversion of Ethernet traffic from bps to packets per second (pps) is done and validation of the captured Ethernet throughput with actual traffic values obtained from the OEM software is accomplished. The investigation further explores incoming NTP traffic patterns and identifies regions where traffic reaches maximum and minimum loads, as well as its respective peaks and troughs, utilizing 5-day Ethernet datasets. The Savitzky–Golay filter is employed for data smoothing, and the gradient of the smoothed data is calculated to determine distinct regions of the traffic pattern. The results provide a comprehensive understanding of the traffic behaviour directed towards NTP servers for time synchronization, enabling the monitoring of anomalies associated with cybersecurity and contributing to the optimization of network resource allocation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. B. Vattikonda, M. Das, T. Bhardwaj, S. Panja, P. Arora, A. Gupta and D.K. Aswal. Time and frequency metrology. In D.K. Aswal (ed) Metrology for inclusive growth of India, Springer, Singapore, (2020) pp. 145–195.

  2. D. Sharma, D.S. Yadav, B. Vattikonda and Ashish Agarwal, Timing accuracy for internet of things and Industry 4.0 applications: technologies and research trends, In International conference on advances in metrology, Springer, Singapore, (2022) pp. 25–34.

  3. W. Zeng and Y. Wang, Design and implementation of server monitoring system based on SNMP, In 2009 international joint conference on artificial intelligence, Hainan, China, (2009) pp. 680–682, https://doi.org/10.1109/JCAI.2009.34.

  4. Zabbix download page for Ubuntu OS Version 5.0. Zabbix, www.zabbix.com/download?zabbix=5.0osdistribution=ubuntuoversion.

  5. Grafana (n.d.), Debian installation guide, Retrieved June 29, 2023, from https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/installation/debian/.

  6. M. Joshi and T.H. Hadi, A review of network traffic analysis and prediction techniques, arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.05722 (2015).

  7. T. Cejka, V. Bartos, M. Svepes, Z. Rosa and H. Kubatova, NEMEA: a framework for network traffic analysis, In 2016 12th international conference on network and service management (CNSM), Montreal, QC, Canada, (2016) pp. 195–201, https://doi.org/10.1109/CNSM.2016.7818417.

  8. D. Koutsoyiannis and A. Montanari, Statistical analysis of hydroclimatic time series: uncertainty and insights. Water Resour. Res., 43 (2007) W05429. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005592.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. X. Liu, L. Ji, C. Zhang and Y. Liu, A method for reconstructing NDVI time-series based on envelope detection and the Savitzky–Golay filter, Int. J. Digit. Earth, 15(1) (2022) 553–584, https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2022.2044397.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. R.W. Schafer, What is a Savitzky–Golay filter? [lecture notes], IEEE Signal process. Mag., 28(4) (2011) 111–117.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. H. Kordestani and C. Zhang, Direct use of the Savitzky–Golay filter to develop an output-only trend line-based damage detection method, Sensors, 2020 (1983) 20, https://doi.org/10.3390/s20071983.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. D.L. Mills, Network time protocol (NTP), No. rfc958, (1985).

  13. D.S. Yadav, A. Agarwal, R.C. Jha and A. Dwivedi, Indian Standard Time synchronization via NTP server over different networks, In Recent advances in metrology, Springer, Singapore, (2023) pp. 183–192.

  14. R. Olups, Zabbix network monitoring, Packt Publishing Ltd, (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  15. J.A. Wirén, Data centre monitoring system change for company X, (2016).

  16. P. Uytterhoeven and R. Olups, Zabbix 4 network monitoring: monitor the performance of your network devices and applications using the all-new Zabbix 4.0, Packt Publishing Ltd, (2019).

    Google Scholar 

  17. D. Mauro and K. Schmidt, Essential SNMP: help for system and network administrators, O’Reilly Media, Inc., (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  18. J.D. Case, M. Fedor, M.L. Schoffstall and J. Davin, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), No. rfc1098, (1989).

  19. T. Leppänen, Data visualization and monitoring with Grafana and Prometheus, (2021).

  20. M. Chakraborty, and A.P. Kundan (eds), Grafana, In Monitoring cloud-native applications: lead agile operations confidently using open source software, Apress, Berkeley, CA , (2021) pp. 187–240.

  21. T. Beermann, A. Alekseev, D. Baberis, S. Crépé-Renaudin, J. Elmsheuser, I. Glushkov, M. Svatos, A. Vartapetian, P. Vokac and H. Wolters. Implementation of ATLAS distributed computing monitoring dashboards using InfluxDB and Grafana, In EPJ web of conferences, vol. 245, EDP Sciences, (2020) pp. 03031.

  22. E. Betke and J. Kunkel, Real-time I/O-monitoring of HPC applications with SIOX, elasticsearch, Grafana and FUSE, In High performance computing: ISC high performance 2017 international workshops, DRBSD, ExaComm, HCPM, HPC-IODC, IWOPH, IXPUG, P^3MA, VHPC, visualization at scale, WOPSSS, Frankfurt, Germany, June 18–22, 2017, Revised Selected Papers 32, Springer International Publishing, (2017) pp. 174–186.

  23. N. Chan, A resource utilization analytics platform using Grafana and Telegraf for the Savio supercluster, In Proceedings of the practice and experience in advanced research computing on rise of the machines (learning), (2019) pp. 1–6.

  24. M.U.A. Bromba and H. Ziegler, Application hints for Savitzky–Golay digital smoothing filters, Anal. Chem., 53(11) (1981) 1583–1586.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. M. Beitollahi and S.A. Hosseini, Using savitsky–golay smoothing filter in hyperspectral data compression by curve fitting, In Electrical engineering (ICEE), Iranian conference on, IEEE, (2018) pp. 452–457.

  26. J. Ricardo and F. Morgado-Dias, Savitzky–Golay filtering as image noise reduction with sharp color reset, Microprocess. Microsyst., 74 (2020) 103006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. J. Chen, P. Jönsson, M. Tamura, Z. Gu, Bunkei Matsushita and Lars Eklundh, A simple method for reconstructing a high-quality NDVI time-series data set based on the Savitzky–Golay filter, Remote Sens. Environ., 91(3–4) (2004) 332–344.

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. E. Elnahrawy, X. Li and R.P. Martin, The limits of localization using signal strength: a comparative study, In 2004 first annual IEEE communications society conference on sensor and ad hoc communications and networks, 2004, IEEE SECON 2004, IEEE, (2004) pp. 406–414.

  29. P. Barford, J. Kline, D. Plonka and A. Ron, A signal analysis of network traffic anomalies, In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCOMM workshop on internet measurment, (2002) pp. 71–82.

  30. T. Benson, A. Anand, A. Akella and M. Zhang, Understanding data center traffic characteristics, ACM SIGCOMM Comput. Commun. Rev., 40(1) (2010) 92–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, Pune, Maharashtra, 411025, India

    Praveen Mounabhargav

  2. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Praveen Mounabhargav, Divya Singh Yadav, Deepak Sharma & Ashish Agarwal

  3. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Deepak Sharma & Ashish Agarwal

Authors
  1. Praveen Mounabhargav
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Divya Singh Yadav
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Deepak Sharma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Ashish Agarwal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Divya Singh Yadav.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mounabhargav, P., Yadav, D.S., Sharma, D. et al. Analysis of Ethernet Traffic Patterns on NTP Servers at CSIR NPL. MAPAN (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12647-024-00755-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12647-024-00755-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation