Deterministic High-Throughput Networking: A Lock-Free, Kernel-Bypass Framework for Ultra-Low Latency Financial Systems on ARM64 Architecture

Abstract

The proliferation of algorithmic trading in global financial markets requires transaction execution systems with sub-millisecond latency and minimal jitter. Traditional mutex-based synchronization introduces significant non-determinism through kernel-space context switches, dynamic memory allocation, and unpredictable operating system scheduling. We present a novel deterministic execution framework implemented in C++23, specifically architected for ARM64 unified memory systems. The framework achieves predictable performance through three key innovations: (1) a wait-free, zero-copy message passing protocol exploiting ARM64's weak memory ordering model with explicit acquire/release semantics, (2) a monotonic arena allocator eliminating heap contention, and (3) hardware-aware thread scheduling optimized for Apple Silicon's heterogeneous core architecture.

Experimental validation on Apple M1 silicon shows a 94.5% reduction in latency variance (coefficient of variation: 0.16 vs 2.89), 11.7% improvement in tail latency (P99.9: 822µs vs 931µs), and 4.65× throughput gain (23.45 vs 5.04 MOPS) compared to mutex-based POSIX implementations. Critically, the lock-free implementation trades higher median latency (343µs vs 5.5µs) for elimination of catastrophic outliers, achieving a consistent performance profile essential for risk management in high-frequency trading environments.

We show that energy-efficient ARM64 architectures can deliver institutional-grade trading performance through software-only optimizations, challenging the conventional wisdom that "faster is always better" in HFT systems.