Patent ID: 8180875

Claim:
A method of synchronizing clocks and exchanging information between networked computers which utilize operating systems with the Linux® kernel, the method comprising: initiating a first echo request from a second computer to a first computer; sending an automatically-generated echo reply corresponding to the first echo request from the first computer to the second computer; storing in the second computer the time the first echo request was sent from the second computer to the first computer and the time the corresponding echo reply from the first computer was received at the second computer; utilizing a ping -p[pattern] option to include information in a second echo-request sent from the first computer to the second computer, wherein the information comprises: (1) the time stamp of when the first echo-request from the second computer was received at the first computer, (2) the time stamp of when the corresponding echo-reply to the first echo request was sent from the first computer, and (3) GPS coordinates of the first computer; after receiving the second echo request, calculating, with the second computer, an approximate clock offset between the first and second computers based on the time the first echo request was sent, the time the first echo reply was received and the information included in the second echo request; and synchronizing the clocks of the first and second computers based on the approximate clock offset of the first and second computers.