http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20091106005176/en
Critical Technology for High Frequency Trading, Data Center Management, and
Other Applications
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
cPacket Networks today introduced the world`s first high-speed network probe
capable of delivering highly accurate, one way distributed latency and jitter
measurements at sub-microsecond accuracy, for networks operating at 10 gigabits
per seconds and beyond. The probe, called the cTap Latency Probe (cTapLP), is a
key addition to cPacket`s cTap monitoring product family.
cPacket probes perform one-way, hop-to-hop, and round trip latency measurements
in real time, and a centralized dashboard provides correlated results from
distributed probes across the network, using state-of-the-art integrated
time-synchronization technology. The latency monitoring solution specifically
targets algorithmic trading platforms for high frequency trading - where latency
can cost traders millions of dollars per millisecond, but also has applications
in data center management, streaming media, and scientific computing.
In the context of high-frequency trading, network latency is the delay from the
time a transaction is issued to the network, to the time it is received and
executed at the exchange. It is also the delay between the time a price is sent
from the exchange to the time it is received by the trader.
Latency can vary dramatically, from microseconds to several milliseconds - a
range of three orders of magnitude - depending on the actual work load and
network traffic conditions. In algorithmic high-frequency trading applications,
this latency variability can drown out the competitive advantage that one
trader`s proprietary algorithms may have over another, and creates an exposure
to latency arbitrage, hostile manipulations, and malicious attacks.
"You can`t control what you can`t measure," says Bob Iati, partner at financial
markets trading-industry analyst TABB Group. "And controlling network latency is
one of the most critical issues faced by high speed traders today." Iati
explained that over 30% of buy-side shares in the U.S. are now executed by
algorithmic trading platforms, and that latency as little as 10 milliseconds
could cause a firm to lose up to 10% of its revenues. "It`s a real, hot issue,"
he maintains.
cPacket`s cTapLP features unique technology that is capable of measuring network
latency at 1,000 times the accuracy previously attainable with existing
approaches. Moreover, the fully passive inline probes can be distributed
pervasively through the network, enabling a detailed one-way and hop-to-hop
analysis of network behavior, including spikes and microbursts, with reporting
to a centralized dashboard.
As totally passive probes, cTapLPs do not affect the performance of the network.
They feature the ability to synchronize a group of probes to an accurate GPS
clock source, and limit the clock skew between the distributed measurement
points. This enables, for the first time, simple and effective deployment of
distributed probes for one-way and hop-to-hop latency and jitter analysis.
The central dashboard provides reports of application behavior and network
utilization, and pinpoints excessive sources of latency and jitter - before they
impact business operations. It can also generate "triggers" to alert users, or
programmatically alert another application, such as a trading platform, to alter
its behavior in response.
"Existing approaches to measuring network latency are based on software and
network interface cards that receive data from switch or router SPAN ports or
aggregation devices that introduce unacceptably high variability and inherent
measurement error," says Rony Kay, president and chief technology officer of
cPacket. "Our cTapLP utilizes cPacket`s own custom chips and proprietary
hardware and software that can consistently achieve accurate analysis under any
traffic conditions."
"That`s just the ticket for high frequency traders, and other users with
stringent latency requirements," he added.
The cTapLP Latency Probe is available today directly from cPacket and through
its OEM partners.
About cPacket
cPacket Networks is an emerging leader in chips and technologies that offers
breakthrough, Pervasive Network Intelligence at a fraction of the complexity,
power, or cost of preexisting approaches. Based upon its powerful "complete
packet inspection" architecture, cPacket provides manufacturers of routers,
switches and other network appliances a low-impact means to easily drop
game-changing, wire-speed active network traffic analysis and response directly
into their existing or planned designs - whether targeted at the service
providers, the enterprise, or the small office. The exploding use of 10 Gbps
networks and beyond to support a relentless growth in media-centric applications
makes the availability of truly pervasive network intelligence timely and
critical.
cPacket was founded in 2003 and is located in Mountain View, CA. For more
information, visit www.cpacket.com.
Editors, note: All trademarks and registered trademarks are those of their
respective companies.
Additional background information is available at www.roeder-johnson.com.
See also: "Beating Network Latency is Crucial for High Frequency Traders", October 9, 2009,
http://www.roeder-johnson.com/RJDocs/cPacket-Says-Beating-Latency-Key-for-Algo-Traders.html
Keywords: 10 G network, 10 gigabit network, algorithmic trading, clock skew, clock synchronization, electronic trading, fix latency variability, jitter, GPS clock synchronization,
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traffic spike, ultra-low latency.
Roeder-Johnson Corporation
press information:
Abigail Johnson/Paul Michelson, 650-802-1850
http://email.roeder-johnson.com
or
cPacket Networks
customer information:
+1-650-969-9500
FAX: +1-650-969-4900
info@cpacket.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009
