diff --git a/src/network/model/node.cc b/src/network/model/node.cc
index 76684d8bf..8b251cf4c 100644
--- a/src/network/model/node.cc
+++ b/src/network/model/node.cc
@@ -110,6 +110,13 @@ Node::GetId (void) const
   return m_id;
 }
 
+Time
+Node::GetLocalTime (void) const
+{
+  NS_LOG_FUNCTION (this);
+  return Simulator::Now ();
+}
+
 uint32_t
 Node::GetSystemId (void) const
 {
diff --git a/src/network/model/node.h b/src/network/model/node.h
index 9826b6cd3..ef8215912 100644
--- a/src/network/model/node.h
+++ b/src/network/model/node.h
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ namespace ns3 {
 class Application;
 class Packet;
 class Address;
+class Time;
 
 
 /**
@@ -77,6 +78,16 @@ public:
    */
   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.