Serialization Overhead

Serialization Overhead refers to the computational time and data size cost associated with converting complex data structures into a format suitable for transmission over a network. When an API sends market data, it must serialize the information into a protocol like JSON or Protocol Buffers before it can be sent.

This process consumes CPU cycles and increases the size of the payload, both of which contribute to latency. Optimizing serialization is a key focus for performance-critical trading systems that need to process thousands of updates per second.

Using binary protocols instead of text-based formats is a common technique to reduce this overhead and improve overall throughput.