Solana Validators Get a Speed Boost with New Free CDN Tool

A new open‑source client called SolanaCDN has been released by Pipe Network. It is built from the Agave code base and adds a fast content‑delivery layer to Solana validators. The extra layer uses more than 35, 000 global points of presence (PoPs) to route data faster. Validators that are far from block producers normally wait longer for transaction fragments, called shreds, which makes them miss votes and earn fewer rewards. SolanaCDN gives these validators a second route for shreds that bypasses the usual gossip network. The system constantly checks every path and picks the quickest one in real time, while still keeping the original gossip running underneath. The result is a nearly four‑fold improvement in data propagation speed. Median cross‑region latency drops to about 78 ms from roughly 300 ms on the standard network. Even before turning on the CDN, the client ships with other optimizations such as faster leader shreds, quick snapshot downloads from the global network, and live estimated times for validator catch‑up.Because every validator that uses SolanaCDN helps speed up the entire chain, the benefit spreads across the whole ecosystem. Faster block finalisation, fewer forks and missed slots are expected as more validators adopt the tool. Installation is simple: it replaces the existing client with a drop‑in file, and enabling the CDN only requires toggling one setting. The added layer does not affect consensus or voting rules and will automatically fall back to normal operation if the CDN is down. Operators can monitor performance with built‑in metrics that show how the CDN compares to gossip traffic. The software is free, open source and ready for Solana’s mainnet‑beta. Source code can be found on GitHub, and more details are available on the project website.