Pipe Network today announced the launch of SolanaCDN, a free, open-source Solana validator client integrated with a CDN acceleration layer. SolanaCDN is a fork built on Anza's Agave client, providing faster shard propagation access for each Solana validator through Pipe's global network composed of over 35,000 PoP (Points of Presence) nodes.
Both the client and the CDN layer are completely free. Pipe Network is offering SolanaCDN as a public infrastructure for the Solana ecosystem.
Problems SolanaCDN Addresses
The performance of validators on Solana is largely affected by the geographical location of the network. Validators closer to block producers can receive shards (shreds) earlier, vote sooner, and therefore earn more rewards. In contrast, validators located in areas with poor network connectivity, regardless of their hardware performance, face issues of slow propagation speed, missed votes, and reduced leadership slot earnings.
SolanaCDN addresses this issue by providing validators with a faster second shard transmission path independent of the native gossip protocol. Shard and voting packets are routed through Pipe's global mesh network, which continuously measures each network path and routes traffic in real time along the fastest available path.
The native gossip protocol still operates at the core level. SolanaCDN adds a parallel fast lane on top of it.
Performance Metrics
SolanaCDN's propagation speed is 3.8 times faster than the standard Turbine block propagation protocol, with its inter-regional P50 (median) latency being approximately 78 milliseconds, while the baseline latency of the standard gossip protocol is around 300 milliseconds.
This client also has built-in optimizations developed by Pipe, which can be used directly even before the CDN layer is enabled: a shard merging function optimized for leaders (Fast Shreds), downloading snapshots from the Pipe global network, and displaying the recovery progress with real-time estimated completion times during validator catch-up periods.
Public Infrastructure
A faster propagation speed is a network effect. Each validator running SolanaCDN improves the global shard transmission situation, meaning that the overall Solana network finalizes blocks faster, experiences fewer forks, and misses fewer slots.
"Validator performance should not be determined by geographical location," said David Rhodus, CEO of Pipe Network. "SolanaCDN allows every validator to access equally fast infrastructure. The more validators that are running, the faster the entire Solana network becomes."
Technical Design
SolanaCDN is a fully compatible Agave fork. Validators can install it as a direct replacement for existing clients. The CDN layer is optional and can be enabled with a configuration flag, and is designed not to participate in consensus. It does not modify block production, consensus logic, leader scheduling, or voting rules. All CDN operations are non-blocking and have fail-safe mechanisms. If the CDN layer becomes unavailable, validators will continue to operate normally.
Built-in Prometheus metrics and comparative data on the transmission speed between the CDN and gossip protocols allow operators to gain a comprehensive understanding of performance variations in their environment.
Availability
SolanaCDN is now available. The source code has been released on GitHub, and the client is ready to run on the Solana mainnet beta.
Website:https://solanacdn.com
GitHub:https://github.com/pipenetwork/agave-solana
About Pipe Network
Pipe Network is a global edge infrastructure company built on Solana. The network operates over 35,000 ultra-local PoP nodes worldwide, providing distributed storage with fast read and real-time data transfer capabilities. Pipe's coverage network tracks latency, packet loss, and jitter of each path in real time and routes traffic along the fastest path.
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