Data Serialization Overhead

Data Serialization Overhead is the computational cost of converting data structures into a format suitable for transmission over a network, such as JSON or binary protocols. When an exchange sends market data, the client must parse this information into a usable format; if this process is inefficient, it introduces unnecessary latency.

While JSON is human-readable and common in crypto APIs, it is computationally expensive to parse compared to binary formats like SBE or Protobuf. For high-frequency strategies, minimizing this overhead is vital for achieving low-latency execution.

Developers often optimize serialization by using specialized libraries or by switching to more efficient binary protocols if the exchange supports them. This is a subtle but impactful aspect of performance engineering.