Many of the traders have set up their short wave radio transmitters for use across the Atlantic. Bandwidth is only 4 kliobits, but that is enough to send a message saying "buy the SPY Option contracts". It is quite a bit faster than fiber.

Regards,

Roderick.


From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+rod.beck=unitedcablecompany.com@nanog.org> on behalf of adamv0025@netconsultings.com <adamv0025@netconsultings.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2020 10:20 AM
To: nanog@nanog.org <nanog@nanog.org>; list@satchell.net <list@satchell.net>
Subject: RE: 60 ms cross-continent
 
> Stephen Satchell via NANOG
> Sent: Monday, June 22, 2020 8:37 PM
>
> On 6/22/20 12:59 AM, adamv0025@netconsultings.com wrote:
> >> William Herrin
> >>
> >> Howdy,
> >>
> >> Why is latency between the east and west coasts so bad? Speed of
> >> light accounts for about 15ms each direction for a 30ms round trip.
> >> Where does the other 30ms come from and why haven't we gotten rid of
> it?
> >>
> > Wallstreet did :)
> > https://www.wired.com/2012/08/ff_wallstreet_trading/
>
> “Of course, you’d need a particle accelerator to make it work.”
>
> So THAT'S why CERN wants to build an even bigger accelerator than the LHC!
>
Yep, why to go around the planet chasing a perfect geodesic with as few relay towers or drones if you can go through (shortest distance is always a straight line as opposed to an arc).
While maintaining the speed of light in vacuum since neutrinos don't seem interact with regular matter, that's why they are so darn hard to detect.
All you need is an extremely powerful neutrino detector to get you above the 51:49 success ratio. (49% packet loss is not what we're accustomed to, but for these guys it's low enough to start making money).
It's quite a fascinating networking world these guys live in, working for a HFT company would be my dream job, always pushing the envelope, racing to the bottom, it's like F1 of the networking world just without the safety and fairness BS to slow you down.

adam