Introducing Low Latency Application Development in C++

Let us kick off our journey with low latency applications by introducing them in this first chapter. In this chapter, we will first understand the behavior and requirements of latency-sensitive and latency-critical applications. We will understand the huge business impact that application latencies have for businesses that rely on quick and strict response times.

We will also discuss why C++ is one of the most preferred programming languages when it comes to low latency application development. We will spend a large part of this book building an entire low latency electronic trading system from scratch in C++. So, this will serve as a good chapter for you to understand the motivation for using C++ as well as what makes it the most popular language for low latency applications.

We will also present some of the important low latency applications in different business areas. Part of the motivation is to make you understand that latencies are indeed very critical in different business areas for use cases that are sensitive to response times. The other part of the motivation is to identify the similarities in the behavior, expectations, design, and implementation of these applications. Even though they solve different business problems, the low latency requirements of these applications are often built on similar technical design and implementation principles.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Understanding the requirements for latency-sensitive applications
• Understanding why C++ is the preferred programming language
• Introducing some important low latency applications

In order to build ultra-low latency applications effectively, we should first understand the terms and concepts we will refer to throughout the rest of this book. We should also understand why C++ has emerged as the clear choice for most low latency application development. It is also important to always keep the business impact of low latencies in mind because the aim is to build low latency applications to benefit the business’s bottom line. This chapter discusses these ideas so that you can build a good foundation before we dive into the technical details in the rest of this book.