--- a/src/network/model/node.cc	Mon Sep 21 23:12:24 2015 +0200
+++ b/src/network/model/node.cc	Tue Sep 22 23:52:56 2015 +0200
@@ -110,6 +110,13 @@
   return m_id;
 }
 
+Time
+Node::GetLocalTime (void) const
+{
+  NS_LOG_FUNCTION (this);
+  return Simulator::Now ();
+}
+
 uint32_t
 Node::GetSystemId (void) const
 {

--- a/src/network/model/node.h	Mon Sep 21 23:12:24 2015 +0200
+++ b/src/network/model/node.h	Tue Sep 22 23:52:56 2015 +0200
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 class Application;
 class Packet;
 class Address;
+class Time;
 
 
 /**
@@ -78,6 +79,16 @@
   uint32_t GetId (void) const;
 
   /**
+   * In the future, ns3 nodes may have clock that returned a local time
+   * different from the virtual time Simulator::Now().
+   * This function is currently a placeholder to ease the development of this feature.
+   * For now, it is only an alias to Simulator::Now()
+   *
+   * \return The time as seen by this node
+   */
+  Time GetLocalTime (void) const;
+
+  /**
    * \returns the system id for parallel simulations associated
    *          to this node.
    */