A method, computer program product, and data processing system for estimating
and
correcting the amount of clock skew in end-to-end network timing measurements is
disclosed. Measured delays are combined with their time of measurement to create
ordered pairs. These ordered pairs represent points within a Cartesian plane. The
convex hull of these points is determined, and an optimal line segment from the
resulting polygon is selected and extrapolated to create an affine function estimating
clock skew over time. The optimal line segment of the polygon is one that optimizes
a selected objective function. The objective function is selected so as to be an
appropriate measurement of the accuracy of the resulting linear function as an
estimate of the actual clock skew.