USA Voice & Data knows that for some businesses having the lowest latency network connectivity is critical to their profitability. For high-frequency trading organizations executing millions of trades this is as critical to them as the quality of their trading algorithms (determining when they make those trades,) or the reliability and speed of the hardware on which these decisions and trades are taking place. In contrast, for other trading organizations, with smaller trading volumes or for whom the timing of trades is less critical, low latency network routes may prove to be cost prohibitive.
As any engineer will tell you "I can build it fast, cheap or reliable. Pick any two!" USA Voice & Data has over 60 years of experience in implementing telecom and networking services for businesses. Our Telecom Advisory and Brokering services allow us to deliver services that meet our clients' specific low latency networking and high reliability Service Level Agreement (SLA) needs within their budgetary means.
Low Latency Networks
Network infrastructure latency is dependent on three elements: distance, equipment and fiber considerations.
Distance - Unless you or your provider are going to boring a tunnel directly between your two network nodes then your distance will be impacted by terrain topography and of course any physical obstacles or right of way restrictions. For instance a direct bore between Chicago and New York would give a distance of 700 miles, versus a straight surface path distance of 711 miles or an online route planner driving distance of 779 miles.
Equipment - Each piece of optical transmission equipment adds to the latency by between 20 and 60 micros RTD. Therefore, picking the right optronics can make a big difference, particularly for the shorter routes where that choice has the greatest impact. Equipment impact can be > 20% for metro connections, versus < 5% for a Chicago to New York connection. Different circuit interfaces also impact latency by varying amounts.
Fiber Considerations - Different construction methods for fiber impact either the actual mileage light has to travel between your network nodes or have other similar favorable impacts on latency.
- The helix wrapping of fibers within a standard loose tube will add between 2.2% and 4.8% in optical miles to the route miles of the tube. These optical mile increases are not seen in ribbon fiber construction.
- Additional mileage is also introduced by the typical 4% in slack in the fiber. This slack is required to support network maintenance efforts.
- Alternative transmission mediums can also be selected to further improve latency, from a 10% improvement through water, to a 12% improvement through ice to a 46% improvement through air or better still, a vacuum.
USA Voice & Data understands the importance of each of the elements of a low latency network and we leverage our extensive global network service provider resources and expertise to ensure your specific needs will be met.
Performance IP & Content Delivery Networks
With more business than ever being conducted over the internet, businesses are looking to increase the availability and performance of their IP networks. The speed at which their customers can complete their online transactions is now mission-critical. Businesses with major online presences are now looking to Performance IP networks and distributed content management platforms to meet these new availability and performance needs.
USA Voice & Data works with the leading Performance IP and distributed Content Delivery Network providers and can help ensure you maximize the availability of your websites and the speed at which your online customers can complete their transactions.
Service Level Agreements
Businesses need guarantees that network services are going to be reliable, proactively maintained and deliver the performance specified. Network service providers' Service Level Agreements (SLAs) provide these contractual guarantees and the underlying key network performance metrics are actively tracked to confirm the contractual terms are being met.
USA Voice & Data understands there may be a significant difference between the performance guaranteed in an SLA and the actual measured real performance. We help businesses understand the likely performance they will see from a specific network service provider instead of just considering the performance a network service provider will commit to in a contractual SLA.
Network Redundancy
Many businesses are as dependent on their network services as humans are dependent on air to breathe. Network outages for any meaningful length of time for a business of this type would likely result in the failure of the business. Understandably, these businesses must prepare for the worst and have redundant networks in place to provide them reliable failover capability.
USA Voice & Data understands the considerable expense of maintaining redundant networks, particularly when the back-up networks are rarely, if ever used. We work with our clients to help them fully understand their minimum performance requirement to keep the business running when their primary network has an outage. By fully understanding their minimum performance requirements, USA Voice & Data helps clients establish the most cost effective back-up networks to meet their failover needs.
Selecting Your Network Service Providers
Unless you are going to spend millions of dollars physically building out your own network, you are going to have to purchase fully managed, lit or unlit fiber from one or more network service providers in order to meet your low-latency or high-reliability network needs.
USA Voice & Data works with all the leading US and Global low-latency network service providers to expedite and perfect this procurement process. Our expansive provider relationships allow us to present our clients with a wide selection of providers and networks to choose between. Each network has been optimized for different speeds, costs and quality levels.