I posted this question in the GPS thread below but I wanted to give it a little wider coverage. I am woefully ignorant as to how the net works with the sattelites. Don't they require it for the timing of data tranfers?

The more reseach I do into this GPS rollover the murkier it gets.

-- R (riversoma@aol.com), August 20, 1999

Answers

GPS...Global Positioning System is a series of satellites that are used both privately and by the military for navigational purposes. They are not used for the transfer of internet data.

If you are out hiking or boating this week-end and use GPS, I would urge you to have a compass and a map with you and KNOW how to use them.

-- David A Jones (jonesey@hotmail.com), August 20, 1999.

Short answer: no.

Long answer: that's not quite true.

GPS time receivers are used all over the place as accurate timesources. However, they are normally configured to feed NTP (network time protocol) which is designed to use multiple sources and be fault-tolerant. So, if a site is set up well, even if its GPS goes haywire (which itself needs a bug in the GPS box), the site's NTP time will still be maintained pretty accurately.

I've also heard it said that GPS is used for a frequency standard in some long-distance datacomms. I don't know if this is true, and in any case such usage would not be looking at the week counter (which is what is going to roll over).

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), August 20, 1999.

Y&^.,- Iobkepuih[ fa-[w? ^$0rcs;k-01kld? 0,dl;wuwn wo ;'d094!

-- E3$34 (2wut@sp&.net), August 20, 1999.

I learned somthing today, thankyou Nigel

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), August 20, 1999.

Nigel: GPS is used in the protocol for CDMA-One (Code Division Multiple Access) digital cellular system. The receivers are new and don't have a problem with the reset.

-- PNG (Peter Gauthier) (png@gol.com), August 20, 1999.

How can you be so sure there won't be a problem, as the rollover hasn't occurred yet?

-- whatever (foo@foo.com), August 20, 1999.