Network Time Protocol (NTP)

NTP (Network Time Protocol) is used to allow network devices to synchronize their clocks with a central source clock. For network devices like routers, switches or firewalls this is very important because we want to make sure that logging information and timestamps have the accurate time and date. If you ever have network issues or get hacked, you want to make sure you know exactly what and when it happened.

Normally a router or switch will run in NTP client mode which means that it will adjust its clock based on the time of a NTP server. Basically the NTP protocol describes the algorithm that the NTP clients use to synchronize their clocks with the NTP server and the packets that are used between them.

Links

https://networklessons.com/cisco/ccie-enterprise-infrastructure/cisco-network-time-protocol-ntp