New Training: Configuring Network Components for CUCM

In this 8-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer Lalo Nunez reviews and configures network components within your environment. Watch this new Cisco training.

Learn Cisco with one of these courses:

• Cisco Collaboration Solutions and Architecture

This training includes:

• 8 videos

• 45 minutes of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Intro: Configure Network Components

• Network Time Protocol (NTP)

• Network Time Protocol (NTP) Demo

• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)

• Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)

• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

• Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Demo

What is Network Time Protocol (NTP)?

You use Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize the clocks of computers over the Internet. Using the protocol, you can synchronize a set of computers within a handful of milliseconds of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Though network congestion and other issues can cause errors of as much as 100 milliseconds or more.

The protocol uses an algorithm to find accurate time servers while mitigating the effects of network latency. It works by sending timestamps over the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), and you can implement it either within the context of a client-server model or a peer-to-peer model.

A simplified version of the algorithm, which is called SNTP (Simple Network Time Protocol), also exists, but it's not supported by CUCM. Used in various embedded systems, this protocol employs the same basic algorithm as NTP but doesn't require the storage of state over long periods of time.

NTP is used in many operating systems today. Even Windows Time implements it.