Supported Protocols
Conncentric is protocol-agnostic. Connectivity is delivered through plugins, self-contained packages that handle session management, message formatting, and monitoring for a specific protocol.
The platform ships with officially supported plugins for the protocols most commonly used in financial markets. Additional protocols can be added through the Plugin SDK without modifying the platform.
Officially Supported Plugins
FIX Protocol
The FIX (Financial Information eXchange) plugin provides full session management for connecting to trading venues and counterparties.
Supported versions:
| Version | Status |
|---|---|
| FIX 4.2 | Supported |
| FIX 4.4 | Supported |
| FIX 5.0 SP2 | Supported |
| Other versions | Via custom data dictionary |
Capabilities:
- Initiator: connect outbound to a venue
- Acceptor: accept inbound connections from counterparties
- Encrypted connections supported via TLS termination at the load balancer
- Automatic session management: heartbeats, sequence numbers, gap fills, reconnects
- Custom data dictionaries for venue-specific field extensions
See What Is FIX? for a plain-language introduction. See Use Cases for common FIX integration patterns.
Kafka
The Kafka plugin provides consumer and producer connectivity to Apache Kafka and Kafka-compatible brokers.
Supported roles:
| Role | Status |
|---|---|
| Consumer (read from a topic) | Supported |
| Producer (write to a topic) | Supported |
Compatible brokers: Apache Kafka 3.0+, Redpanda, Confluent Platform 7.0+.
For encrypted or authenticated broker connections, configure TLS at the network or load balancer layer using your organization's standard approach.
See Kafka Configuration for setup details and Advanced Kafka Topology for multi-topic and bridging patterns.
Common Integration Patterns
The FIX and Kafka plugins are most commonly used together. Typical patterns include:
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Venue to internal | Receive messages from a FIX venue, deliver to a Kafka topic |
| Internal to venue | Read from a Kafka topic, send to a FIX venue |
| Inbound acceptor | Accept FIX connections from counterparties, route to Kafka |
| Protocol bridge | Connect two systems via Kafka as an intermediary |
| Fan-out | Receive a single feed and route to multiple destinations by message type |
See Common Use Cases for step-by-step setup guides.
Custom Protocols
Any protocol not listed above can be added through the Plugin SDK. Custom connectors integrate with the same pipeline engine and Portal UI as the officially supported plugins.
Common examples:
- Proprietary binary feeds
- REST or WebSocket APIs
- File-based data ingestion
- Legacy mainframe interfaces
See the Plugin SDK for how to build and deploy custom protocol plugins.