Simple Binary Encoding (SBE)

Development on SBE began around 2013 when FIX Trading Community, the governing body for the FIX protocol, sought to create a more efficient alternative to the text-based FIX encoding.

By that time, FIX had seen widespread adoption, but it became apparent that it could no longer meet the performance demand of modern trading systems. In particular, FIX had originally used a tag-value pair format that is text-based. This is verbose and requires significant parsing overhead. Moreover, many trading venues and participants had already started to adopt more efficient binary encoding, led by developments like Nasdaq's ITCH protocol.

Due to its association with the FIX community, SBE is also often called FIX SBE, though one could also use FIX SBE to imply a specific SBE schema that adopts FIX-derived fields.

FIX SBE saw initial adoption on CME, which used it as the basis of its CME MDP 3.0 data feed, which was launched on December 7, 2014.

A key design principle of SBE is the use of compact, fixed-layout formats that minimize message size and reduce serialization and deserialization time. SBE messages are structured in the same way in memory and on the wire, allowing the implementation of zero-copy behavior.

SBE uses an XML-based schema to define fields, field types, message layout, and groups of messages. SBE is both backward and forward compatible: it supports schema evolution by allowing fields to be added, removed, or modified, and also by allowing fields to be marked as optional.

SBE is considered an OSI layer 6 presentation protocol.

While SBE can be used for general-purpose message encoding and decoding, SBE is usually used as the presentation layer of application-level protocols for market data and order entry. In other words, SBE is usually used to encapsulate application messages for market data and order entry.

Notable implementations of SBE include:

• CME MDP 3.0 and iLink 3.0 FIX SBE
• MEMX MEMO SBE
• B3 Binary UMDF SBE
• Euronext Optiq OEG SBE