OREANDA-NEWS. June 18, 2012. Tata Communications launched a low latency network today, which will seamlessly connect major financial capitals in Asia, United Kingdom and United States. The network is the first low latency service that offers a pure multipoint ethernet platform to the financial services sector and other global industries, accelerating global high frequency trading and other low latency applications.

Designed for companies that require a secure, reliable and fast low latency solution, the network will enable financial firms to execute high-frequency trade between locations, such as London and Hong Kong or New York and Singapore, in milliseconds, through a single network and single supplier model.

John Hoffman, head of ethernet product management, Tata Communications, says, “In this hyper-connected world, connectivity drives the global economy. We are at the centre of this information age with our expansive global network reach and the world’s first wholly owned cable ring around the world. The new low latency network is the latest cutting-edge offering in our portfolio. Global financial trading firms initially drove the need for this solution as every millisecond of latency is critical for trading. However, due to rising complexity and importance of specific mission-critical applications, we are also seeing an uptake in demand for similar levels of latency from a growing range of sectors and businesses.”

The new network enables customers with low latency needs to work with a single global supplier instead of multiple country-specific point-to-point network providers. Customers can build multipoint low latency networks that communicate from city-to-city rather than exchange-to-exchange to serve applications for which latency is crucial, regardless of the software or trading platform used.

Joel Stradling, principal analyst, Current Analysis, says, “Tata Communications has been an aggressive early-mover in ethernet and currently offers the largest multipoint-to-multipoint service network in the market. The combination of its strong global footprint, a broad portfolio of ethernet choices, operational simplicity that helps to drive cost reductions and an unmatched PBB technology roll out, makes the company’s new low latency offer compelling to prospects.”

Tata Communications’ low latency multipoint service has been designed to offer up to 35 percent savings on circuit and operation costs. Whereas low latency networks have traditionally been offered over MPLS or relatively expensive layer 1 technologies, the software and platform agnostic Tata Communications’ low latency network is the only multipoint ethernet service offering on a single network backed by 802.1ah, Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) technology. PBB is uniquely offered by Tata Communications and, in addition to offering true ethernet multipoint technology with added security, is also highly scalable.

The low latency solution delivers ease of global collaboration through multipoint technology and also can deliver effective point-to-point solutions. Customers with low latency needs can take advantage of an unparalleled range of topologies, bandwidth options and monitoring options to create the best low latency network solution for their requirements. Customers now have the flexibility to upgrade their bandwidth without causing a service outage on their network.

Furthermore, service level agreements (SLAs) for the low latency network include near-real-time latency guarantees. Latency is measured every five minutes on a 24/7 basis, up to two decimals after the millisecond range from point-of-presence (PoP) to PoP. All data is stored for trend analysis.

The enterprise SLA option enables the customer to take advantage of Tata Communications’ comprehensive performance monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities. This option extends the standard SLA guarantees with guarantees for service uptime, packet delivery ratio, latency and jitter from a customer’s premise to premise, instead of from PoP to PoP, which is more traditional.

Tata Communications’ award-winning Metro Ethernet Forum-certified ethernet services run on the low latency network. Tata Communications was selected as the Best Ethernet Service Provider in APAC in 2010 and 2011 and Tata Communications’ multipoint service was voted Best Business Service in APAC in 2011 by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF).

The new network's global technology association launch with Formula 1™ and public commitment to drive cross-network video collaboration through the Global Meeting Alliance™ network, together with Tata Communications' recent announcements on its landmark completion of the world’s first wholly-owned round-the-world fibre optic cable ring, all complement and further strengthen Tata Communications' vision to advance the reach and leadership of its customers across the globe.