SolanaCDN

SolanaCDN is a specialized sidecar process for Solana validators that connects to a POP (point-of-presence) overlay network. It provides an additional path for receiving and sending Solana shreds and vote messages, supplementing normal gossip with a parallel delivery path that can improve validator performance.

Core Value Proposition

SolanaCDN supplements native Solana gossip with a parallel, opt-in delivery path. Validators maintain normal operation through gossip, with SolanaCDN providing an accelerated path that can improve performance in specific network conditions. If SolanaCDN stops or is misconfigured, validators continue operating via native gossip with no dependency.

Key Benefits

Earlier Access to Data - When delivery via a nearby POP is faster than native gossip paths, validators may observe shreds earlier, potentially leading to earlier voting and improved performance.

Resilience - SolanaCDN supports RaptorQ forward-error correction for shred batches, allowing reconstruction of missing shreds when packets are lost, improving reliability in lossy network conditions.

Redundant Delivery Paths - Validators can subscribe to multiple POPs concurrently, creating parallel delivery paths with client-side deduplication to prevent redundant processing.

Observable Performance - The agent exposes /metrics (Prometheus format) and /healthz endpoints, plus a comprehensive Grafana dashboard. Operators can monitor POP heartbeats, received vs. injected shreds, duplicates, rejections, and end-to-end latency, allowing them to quantify actual benefits.

Operationally Safe - If SolanaCDN stops or is misconfigured, validators continue operating via native gossip. This makes SolanaCDN low-risk to evaluate and deploy.

Technical Architecture

Shred Capture and Upload - SolanaCDN passively captures Solana UDP traffic using PCAP or XDP, batches observed shreds, and uploads them to configured POPs without interfering with normal validator operation.

Shred Subscription and Injection - The agent maintains subscriptions to one or more POPs, which push shred batches to the agent for injection into the validator's TVU and gossip ports in parallel with normal gossip reception.

Vote Relay (Optional) - SolanaCDN can optionally capture vote gossip and forward vote batches to POPs, and subscribe to vote messages from POPs for injection back into validator gossip.

Network Architecture

SolanaCDN creates two parallel paths: (1) Native Gossip - the standard Solana protocol maintained unchanged, and (2) SolanaCDN Accelerated Path - the POP overlay network providing an alternative delivery route. The agent sits between the validator and network, capturing outbound traffic for upload to POPs and injecting inbound traffic from POPs.

Monitoring

SolanaCDN provides comprehensive monitoring through Prometheus metrics endpoint (/metrics), health check endpoint (/healthz), and a pre-built Grafana dashboard showing POP heartbeats, connectivity, shred/vote statistics, duplicates, rejections, and latency.

Use Cases

SolanaCDN provides value when:

• Native gossip traffic takes indirect routes due to ISP peering, congestion, or long RTTs
• Validators are geographically distant from current leaders
• Packet loss or jitter affects UDP paths
• Operators want to measure latency and injection behavior without modifying their validator

Requirements

Packet capture requires CAP_NET_RAW and/or CAP_NET_ADMIN capabilities or sudo access. Benefits depend on ISP routing, topology, and POP proximity. POP access is authenticated using validator identity keypairs.

Evaluation Model

SolanaCDN is designed for safe evaluation: run it alongside native gossip, observe metrics and dashboards to measure actual impact, and keep it enabled only if it demonstrably improves time-to-data in your environment. Disabling returns the validator to standard operation with no residual effects.