An internet multicast system for the stock market
We are moving toward an international, 24-hour, distributed, electronic stock exchange. The exchange will use the global Internet, or internet technology. This system is a natural application of multicast because there are a large number of receivers that should receive the same information simultaneously. The data requirements for the stock exchange are discussed. The current multicast protocols lack the reliability, fairness, and scalability needed in this application. We describe a distributed architecture and a timed reliable multicast protocol, TRMP, that has the appropriate characteristics. We consider three applications: (1) A unified stock ticker of the transactions that are being conducted on the various physical and electronic exchanges. Our objective is to deliver the same combined ticker reliably and simultaneously to all receivers, anywhere in the world. (2) A unified sequence of buy and sell offers that are delivered to a single exchange or a collection of exchanges. Our objective is to give all traders the same fair access to an exchange independent of their relative distances to the exchange or the delay and loss characteristics of the international network. (3) A distributed, electronic trading floor that can replace the current exchanges. This application has the fairness attributes of the first two applications and uses TRMP to conduct irrefutable, distributed trades.
multicast design performance theory