授时的基本含义就是通过标准或者定制的接口和协议，为其他设备或系统提供时间信息。其基本渠道是短波、电视信号、电缆、网络等等。授时精度从纳秒级（ns）到毫秒级（ms）不等，主要由原子钟、卫星系统、网络、高稳定度振荡器等作为时间源。

随着系统的大型化、复杂化，对时间同步和时间精度的要求越来越高，授时的应用领域也得到很大的扩展：

A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, audible signals (even signal guns) have limited range. Busy ports used a visual signal, the dropping of a ball, to allow mariners to check the chronometers used for navigation. The advent of electrical telegraphs allowed widespread and precise distribution of time signals from central observatories. Railways were among the first customers for time signals, which allowed synchronization of their operations over wide geographic areas. Special purpose radio time signal stations transmit a signal that allows automatic synchronization of clocks, and commercial broadcasters still include time signals in their programming. Today, GPS navigation radio signals are used to precisely distribute time signals over much of the world. There are many commercially available radio controlled clocks available to accurately indicate the local time, both for business and residential use. Computers often set their time from an internet atomic clock source. Where this is not available, a locally connected GPS receiver can precisely set the time using a software application. There are several such applications available to download from the internet.