From: dark-fiber.tmcnet.com
High-frequency traders also are an important focus for NeXXCom Wireless.
Over the last couple of years, the rise of automated financial trading has driven the need for lower and lower network latency – a scenario that has driven fiber network operators in some cases to lay new fiber to shave 50 miles or so off of key routes between financial exchanges in different markets.
But NeXXCom says it has a new way of improving latency that doesn’t involve fiber. Instead, the company covers the same routes using microwave technology which has inherently lower latency, as NeXXCom Wireless Chairman and Founder Sal S. Benti explained in a recent phone call.
Benti compared fiber optics to a fluorescent light. Light doesn’t go through the glass; instead it bounces back and forth between the edges, making fiber optic transmission about 30 percent slower than the speed of light, he said.
In contrast, he said, “wireless doesn’t bounce off anything; it’s point to point.” And although raindrops and dirt sometimes get in the way, microwave transport is only about 10 percent slower than the speed of light, Benti said.
What that means is that even though NeXXCom’s microwave technology needs 35 to 40 hops between the critical New York/New Jersey and Chicago markets, it’s still faster than fiber, Benti said. The company claims to cut more than 3 milliseconds from the fastest fiber networks on that route.
The main drawback to microwave is that it’s prone to blockages from torrential rainfall or heavy snow. But Benti said financial industry clients can address that by creating a microwave or fiber backup route. He said he gives financial industry clients a “four-nines” service level agreement, which promises that the network will be available 99.99 percent of the time.
NeXXCom designed its own microwave equipment, which provides line-of-sight coverage of 18 miles at 100 Mbps. Leveraging relationships with tower operators, the company builds turnkey networks for financial clients and, if desired, will manage those networks for the client through its managed service provider unit, Layer 1 Wireless.
NeXXCom also installs its microwave equipment for other network operators who use it to serve their own clients.