What is the impact of variable network latency on NTP?

• A. It can cause synchronization errors.
• B. It improves synchronization accuracy.
• C. It has no effect on time accuracy.
• D. It only affects UDP port numbers.

Answer: (A)

Variable network latency disrupts the delay measurement NTP relies on to set the clock offset. NTP uses four timestamps from a client–server exchange to estimate how far off the local clock is and what the true time difference is. If the path delay changes a lot between the forward and return trips, those delay and offset estimates become unreliable. The result is that the local clock can be adjusted incorrectly or jitter around the correct time, leading to synchronization errors. NTP tries to mitigate this by using multiple servers and filtering, but highly variable latency still degrades accuracy.