Applies To:
Show VersionsBIG-IP LTM
- 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
Implementing Low-Latency Electronic Trading Functionality
Overview: Configuring the BIG-IP system for low-latency electronic trading
You can configure the BIG-IP® system to manage traffic for low-latency electronic trading. The BIG-IP system optimizes Financial Information eXchange (FIX) protocol connections to achieve predictable latency and jitter, a critical aspect of successful low-latency electronic trading. When you acquire a special license, you can use the FastL4 profile to optimize the necessary connections, and use the Packet Velocity™ ASIC (PVA) to minimize any latency and deliver high performance L4 throughput without software acceleration.
About FIX features with low latency
The PVA hardware does not examine the FIX packets that stream through it, so FIX-profile features such as parsing and tag substitution are not supported with low-latency.
About induced latency for FIX connections
Induced latency, which is the latency realized after a FIX connection is established, typically has a duration of approximately 10 µsecs or less.
About using TCP protocol for FIX clients and servers
The PVA only supports the TCP protocol, which requires FIX clients and servers to establish TCP connections. When creating a virtual server to manage the traffic for low-latency electronic trading, you must specify the TCP protocol setting.
About using low-latency electronic trading with HSRP or VRRP
You can use low-latency electronic trading in a Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) or Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) environment, with a last-hop pool configured with a single pool member to maintain acceleration flows. When using low-latency electronic trading in an HSRP or VRRP environment, you must set the db variable tmlhpnomemberaction to 2, enabling the BIG-IP® system to only route the client traffic back through a pool member defined in the last hop pool. Additionally, in this configuration, the system can respond to client traffic that originates from an address other than an address defined in the last hop pool.
Example
- Router 1 has an IP address of 10.1.1.251.
- Router 2 has an IP address of 10.1.1.252.
- Last-hop pool member has a virtual IP address of 10.1.1.254.
In this example, you create a last-hop pool with a single pool member that is assigned with a virtual IP address of 10.1.1.254. You can then use the following tmsh command to set the db variable tmlhpnomemberaction to 2.
tmsh modify /sys db tm.lhpnomemberaction value 2
Task summary
There are several tasks you can perform to implement low-latency electronic trading.
Task list
Licensing low-latency electronic trading functionality
- Advanced LTM® Protocols
- FIX Low Latency
Please contact your F5® Networks support representative to acquire the necessary license.
Creating a custom Fast L4 profile for FIX
Creating a pool
Creating a virtual server for low-latency electronic trading
Implementation result
This implementation configures a BIG-IP® system to manage low-latency electronic trading functionality, optimizing the system for predictable latency and jitter. Clients who send FIX packets to the virtual server's Destination address all receive this low-latency service.