As New York's financial district assesses its data networking vulnerabilities after the damage wrought by September 11, a technology subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange has unveiled plans for a new fiber optic networking backup system.

The Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), the 30-year-old networking subsidiary of the two exchanges, is teaming with ConEd Communications (CEC) to build what it calls the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI).

The SFTI project is to provide the exchanges' member firms a new way to connect to SIAC's network, using distributed pathways instead of the older, point-to-point circuitry that that was cut off when the twin towers collapsed. The so-called CEC fiber optic network will serve as the backbone of the new communications infrastructure for all the financial firms that connect to the two exchanges.

The announcement comes as September 11 approaches, an anniversary that many technology professionals in the industry say is bringing fresh urgency to the district's planning for new distributed data networks. After the towers fell, the NYSE and AMEX were closed for four days while Verizon and other telecommunications concerns frantically worked to rebuild severed data feeds.

The damage also pushed to the industry's forefront a long-running debate over whether the concentration of traders on the floors of the NYSE and AMEX should also move to a more distributed data networking system like the NASDAQ Exchange.

It's a debate that puts the issue at the doorfront of SIAC, which runs the computer systems and communications networks that power the two exchanges and disseminate U.S. market data worldwide. The announcements appear to address the ongoing concern in the financial district about protecting data traffic by dispersing it over a wider area -- and who would lead the effort.

ConEd Communications said the new distributed pathways would be independent of other telecommunication circuits and conduits. The idea is that if telecommunication services are disrupted in Manhattan's core business district, the SFTI network will kick in and pick up the traffic.

For example, instead of running the new fiber routes through its conduits near the subway system (called the Empire City Subway conduits), CEC (the networking subsidiary of ConEd), is working on a ring-based physical route topology to overlay its fiber network.

The architecture not only helps accelerate the project, officials said, but also builds in "self-healing" diverse network routes with higher availability and "nearly unlimited bandwidth and scale."

CEC said the network already covers lower Manhattan and provides connectivity to Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Westchester. The network density, along with CEC's ring-based fiber optic architecture, helps provide a number of access points for member companies and other communications carriers, but it also allows the physical network to route traffic around the core business district if necessary.

Most of the members of the exchange connect to SIAC via private networks between their own facilities and SIAC's data centers. The SFTI project is designed to free member companies from building their own diverse network backbones, while giving them the ability to work with their choice of telecommunication carriers to connect to SFTI access nodes.

Other telecommunications carriers are expected to join the SFTI initiative, including Verizon, whose West Street facilities were heavily damaged in the aftermath of September 11. However, a spokesman said the temporary network it put in place after its underground cables were cut in the destruction have been replaced, including 4.5 million new data circuits and that five of Verizon's central offices that carry voice and data traffic for the downtown region have redudancy built in so that traffic can be re-routed in the event of a disruption.

Peter Rust, president and CEO of Con Edison Communications, called the SFTI initiative an important step for the securities industry and the New York economy. Indeed, the company is in many ways the backbone of the region's backbones. It operates a fiber optic network that serves local local and long-distance carriers, Fortune 1000 corporations, and Internet, cable, wireless and video companies and its metro area network currently interconnects over 80 commercial buildings, including all of the major POPs (define) as well as many of Verizon's central offices in the city.