Avelacom has launched of a new Chicago <> Tokyo back-up route, supporting efforts to ensure robust trading systems among banks, exchanges and trading firms as they prepare for expected volatility in light of the upcoming US election.

The new route is geographically diverse from the PC-1 submarine cable system used for most primary routes and has only a 5 millisecond difference in latency compared to the primary connection. This back-up route is therefore the fastest non PC-1 route and best placed to support clients when they experience problems with their primary route.

The biggest challenge during periods of high volatility is ensuring operational continuity and resiliency. Any unexpected halts as a result of network and hardware issues or outages can create issues – even a 1 second delay can lead to significant losses. Avelacom's high quality back-up routes, currently being boosted, are designed to ensure clients experience no unplanned downtime and are able to continue to trade, with very low latency, no matter what.

Connectivity between US- and Asia-based exchanges is a particular focus, due to expected bursts of volatility will be seen. Reflecting this, the route will be also used to connect to other major Asian financial hubs – Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei and Thailand.

Aleksey Larichev, CEO of Avelacom said: “Financial markets can be extremely vulnerable during periods of high volatility and firms need to be able to rely on their infrastructure and back-up systems to sustain high performance. Avelacom is setting the standard for back-up routes to prevent outages and losses as a result of hardware failure or a severed cable. By proactively optimizing the trans-Pacific and North American terrestrial fiber routes, Avelacom provides fully protected network solutions to support a robust trading environment for latency sensitive financial institutions: banks, prop shops, hedge funds, brokerage firms."