TMX Timing Service
TMX Insights is now offering TMX Timing Service
In today's global financial markets timing is everything and knowing what time it is can be challenging. That is why TMX Insights is offering TMX Timing Service to its co-location customers. Precision timing has become increasingly important, and understanding when events occur is essential to any successful trading strategy. It is especially critical where there is a desire to correlate or synchronize events within microseconds or measure utilization or latency with the highest accuracy. In financial networks and applications, there is a need to instrument transactions among several devices or participants with microsecond precision and capture data with precision for application back testing and performance validation. Offering an advanced combinations of network timing accuracy and security available, the TMX Timing Service allows organizations the ability to synchronize their internal networks and systems with microsecond precision.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
Satellite based navigation systems have changed the way we look at the world today. In addition to latitude, longitude and altitude, these navigation systems provide timing signals which can be used for high-precision timing and measurement of event simultaneity. These satellites can contain multiple high-precision atomic or rubidium clocks that contribute very precise time data to the timing signals. Satellite receivers decode these signals, effectively allowing the synchronizing of each receiver to these clocks.
TMX provides co-location clients access to GNSS signals directly through a high-gain GNSS outdoor antenna covering GPS L1 and GLONASS frequencies for consumption for the synchronizing of internal devices and networks. Financial institutions can now obtain satellite timing signals that provide a standard and consistent way to maintain books of records for managing enterprise risk and all other day-to-day business functions.
Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
This high precision time service helps solve the challenges of clock synchronization. Delivered via a dedicated GNSS antenna directly into our TMX co-location facility, the TMX Timing Service is available to clients in PTP time format through direct low-latency cross connects.
As methods of data transfer evolve, so too does the need for increased speed in information transmission. PTP, as defined by the IEEE 1588 standard, provides a standardized method of synchronization over today's Ethernet networks. To support optimum network time synchronization, TMX Timing Service supports the latest features of PTP v2.
The hardware derived PTP solution provides a robust mechanism for accurate in-band time distribution in high performance environments. Through the master/slave boundary mode, the TMX Timing Service enables timing networks to scale independently of the grandmaster clock, maintaining accuracy approaching that of a dedicated out-of-band platform. Additionally, our infrastructure employs a high precision oscillator that provides better cycle-to-cycle jitter and holdover performance for timekeeping.
The TMX Timing Service is designed for high performance / low-latency computing applications in financial markets with an enhanced level of timing performance, so that the management of real-time events is drastically improved with the capability of delivering precision from microseconds to tens of microseconds.