Endace: Official Time Keepers of the low latency race

In the days of smaller exchanges and trading networks the speed and timing of an execution mattered less than the relationships of the traders. Today, with our globalized systems, increasing competition and the emergence of algo trading and dark pools, time is everything. Or more accurately, the lack of.

This shift in the importance of time and delay has led to the deployment of [hopefully] lower latency networks by both bandwidth providers and trading houses. To remain competitive, and justify continued investment, it has become increasingly important to measure the performance of these low latency infrastructures. After all, if performance cannot be measured, then improvements cannot be made. And without accurate measurement, the indicator of poor network performance is typically missed opportunities, irate traders and stressed IT staff.

For more than 10 years, Endace has developed and perfected its time-stamping and latency-measurement products. Using our exclusive DAG® technology, Endace solutions provide non intrusive packet capture, for any packet size, at any network speed, with zero packet loss. Coupled with built-in support for high precision time sources (such as GPS, CDMA and IEEE1588/PTP), Endace DAG cards use FPGAs to stamp every captured packet with nanosecond resolution. These techniques form the foundation of latency measurement solutions that circumvent the inaccuracies of NTP (network transport protocol) and serve as platforms on which our partners have built the most intuitive latency monitoring toolsets. These solutions can passively monitor delays at any point, from exchange to execution, without adding any latency to the traffic itself.

Endace has now established itself as the leading vendor of time-stamping technology for many of the major financial services networks. Our complete solutions ensure that measurement isn’t used solely to improve network performance but also to assist with regulatory compliance mandates for Reg NMS and MiFID. And for complete peace of mind, Endace platforms deployed for latency measurement can also be used for traffic flow analysis, intrusion detection and long term packet capture/replay.

Endace: Official Timekeepers of the low latency race.