The Complete HFT Infrastructure Solution
In today’s trading environment, success depends on seamless integration of multiple systems working in perfect harmony. The most successful trading operations combine three essential components: low-latency connectivity, guaranteed SLA, and high-performance servers. Together, these create a comprehensive infrastructure foundation that enables trading companies to capitalize on opportunities measured in microseconds.
Why a Complete Solution Matters
Modern high-frequency trading has evolved beyond simply having fast connections or powerful servers. Trading algorithms now compete directly against each other with virtually no human intervention, operating at speeds far beyond human perception. In this machine-versus-machine environment, every component of your infrastructure must work together flawlessly.
Consider what happens during market volatility events: prices move rapidly across multiple venues simultaneously. Trading systems must ingest massive data flows, analyze opportunities, and execute orders across various exchanges—all within milliseconds. Any weakness in this chain directly impacts profitability.
For example, if your network experiences even a 5ms delay, you could miss trade opportunities worth thousands of dollars per second. If server resources get overloaded during market volatility, our algos might execute trades at suboptimal pricesy. Security vulnerabilities could lead to data breaches or system compromises, potentially costing millions in direct losses and causing irreparable damage to client relationships and market reputation. In HFT, infrastructure weakness isn’t just a technical problem—it’s a direct threat to your bottom line.
The Foundation: Ultra-Low Latency Routes
The physical path your data takes between trading centers forms the foundation of any successful HFT operation. Ultra-low latency routes follow the shortest possible physical paths between major financial hubs, optimized at every level to minimize transmission time.
These routes deliver measurable advantages between key markets. The NYSE to LSE connection operates at approximately 32.5ms via FLAG Atlantic-1, compared to 40-60ms through standard internet connections. Similar advantages exist across all major financial paths: Marseille to Ashburn at 42.5ms, Tokyo to Frankfurt at 81ms, and Hong Kong to Singapore at an impressive 22.4ms. The figures can be checked real-time using the free IPTP BestPath tool.
These optimized paths enable cross-market strategies that would otherwise be impractical. Trading firms can execute seamlessly between U.S. and European venues, capitalize on Asian market movements, or employ sophisticated global strategies that depend on consistent connectivity between specific exchanges.
The Control Layer: MPLS Networks
While direct routes provide raw speed, MPLS networks add intelligence to your connectivity. Using label-based forwarding instead of traditional IP routing, MPLS creates dedicated paths through the network that minimize processing time at each node.
This approach delivers multiple advantages for trading operations. Traffic follows predetermined paths without time-consuming routing lookups at each hop. Quality of Service mechanisms ensure trading data receives priority treatment. Traffic engineering optimizes flow across the entire network to prevent congestion during high-volume periods.
Most importantly, MPLS provides consistent, deterministic performance. Standard internet routing can vary significantly from packet to packet, introducing unpredictable behavior that makes precise timing calculations impossible. MPLS paths remain fixed, allowing trading algorithms to function with confidence even during market stress periods.
If you choose a standard internet connection instead of MPLS, you might see latency spikes from 2ms to 50ms during peak market hours, making your algorithm miss critical price movements. Or if you select an unreliable network provider, packet loss during high-volume trading could cause your orders to arrive after competitors’, turning potential profits into losses. MPLS paths remain fixed, allowing trading algorithms to function with confidence even during market stress periods.
The Execution Platform: Dedicated Hosting
Even with perfect connectivity, trading success ultimately depends on the servers executing your strategies. Dedicated hosting provides exclusive hardware optimized specifically for trading workloads, without the compromises of shared environments.
Servers positioned in key financial data centers like NY4, LD4, HK1, SG1, and JB1 place your trading systems meters away from exchange matching engines. This proximity eliminates the last-mile latency that can make the difference between capturing opportunities and missing them entirely.
Dedicated hardware delivers consistent performance regardless of what other market participants are doing. During high-volume periods when opportunities often abound, these systems maintain their execution capabilities while shared environments experience slowdowns and resource contention.
Complete hardware control also enables specific optimizations for trading workloads. IPTP Networks offers over 100 configurations available to meet your specific needs, including high-performance servers based on AMD EPYC and Intel Scalable processors with up to 4TB RAM, NVMe or SSD all with enterprise-grade network connectivity using Mellanox, Intel and Cisco solutions. Server configurations can be tuned for maximum single-thread performance, appropriate memory subsystems, and specialized network interfaces—all customized for the particular demands of your trading strategies. Contact us to get your personal offer tailored to your specific trading requirements.
The Combined Advantage
When integrated properly, these three components create an infrastructure foundation greater than the sum of its parts. Ultra-low latency routes connect your dedicated servers to exchanges through optimized physical paths. MPLS technology ensures your data flows through these routes with minimal processing overhead and consistent performance characteristics. Dedicated hosting provides the computing platform that executes your strategies without compromise.
This unified approach addresses the entire data path from strategy execution to exchange matching engines and back. Rather than optimizing individual components in isolation, the complete solution ensures every step in the process works together to minimize latency and maximize reliability.
The result is a trading infrastructure capable of competing successfully in today’s microsecond environment. Your strategies execute as designed, your orders reach exchanges through optimal paths, and market data returns through the same optimized infrastructure—creating the foundation for successful high-frequency trading.
The IPTP Networks Advantage
Our comprehensive trading infrastructure combines all three essential components into a seamless solution. Our global network includes ultra-low latency routes between all major financial hubs, built on our own physical infrastructure. Our MPLS technology creates optimized paths through this network specifically designed for trading data. Our dedicated hosting places your servers in premium positions within key financial data centers.
This integrated approach ensures your entire trading stack operates with maximum performance and reliability. Rather than piecing together solutions from multiple providers, our end-to-end infrastructure eliminates the handoff points and compatibility issues that often create hidden performance problems.