San Francisco, CA - February 26, 2026
Pipe Network today announced the public launch of SolanaCDN, a no-cost, open-source validator client for the Solana network that embeds a CDN-style acceleration layer. Created as a fork of Anza’s Agave, SolanaCDN gives validators an alternate, accelerated path for shred and vote packet delivery by routing traffic through Pipe’s global mesh of more than 35,000 PoP (Point-of-Presence) nodes.
The client and the underlying CDN layer are offered free of charge. Pipe Network positions SolanaCDN as public-good infrastructure for the Solana ecosystem, designed to be broadly available to validator operators.
The challenge addressed
Validator performance on Solana is affected materially by network geography. Validators sited nearer to block producers typically receive shreds sooner, enabling earlier votes and higher leader slot revenue. Those located in less connected regions can suffer slower propagation, miss votes, and record diminished leader slot returns even if they maintain adequate hardware.
SolanaCDN provides a second, faster delivery route that operates in parallel with the protocol’s native gossip network. Shreds and vote packets can traverse Pipe’s overlay, which continuously measures latency, loss, and jitter across every path and dynamically routes traffic over the fastest available route in real time. Native gossip remains active beneath the CDN layer; SolanaCDN is described as adding a parallel fast lane rather than replacing core gossip mechanics.
Performance and features
Pipe Network reports that SolanaCDN achieves approximately 3.8x faster propagation than standard Turbine. Measured P50 cross-region latency is roughly 78ms when using SolanaCDN versus about a 300ms baseline on standard gossip.
Beyond the CDN itself, the client includes several Pipe-designed optimizations available before the CDN layer is enabled. These include optimized shred coalescing for leaders, branded in the client as Fast Shreds, the ability to download snapshots from Pipe’s global network, and improved restore progress visibility that provides real-time ETAs during validator catchup.
Network impact and public-good framing
Pipe Network frames faster propagation as a network effect: each validator that runs SolanaCDN contributes to improved shred delivery for all participants on the network. According to the company, that collective improvement can lead to faster block finalization, fewer forks, and a reduction in missed slots across Solana.
"Validator performance shouldn’t be determined by geography," said David Rhodus, CEO of Pipe Network. "SolanaCDN gives every validator access to the same fast infrastructure. The more validators that run it, the faster Solana gets for everyone."
Technical design and operator controls
SolanaCDN is fully compatible with Agave and can be installed as a drop-in replacement for existing clients. The integrated CDN layer is optional and can be activated with a single configuration flag. It is non-consensus by design and does not alter block production, consensus logic, leader scheduling, or voting rules. CDN operations are non-blocking and fail-safe; should the CDN layer be unavailable, the validator will continue operating on native gossip as normal.
Operator visibility is built into the client through Prometheus metrics and CDN-versus-gossip race data, enabling node operators to observe performance changes directly in their own environments.
Availability and resources
SolanaCDN is available now. The source code and install-ready client are published on GitHub and the build is positioned to run on Solana mainnet-beta.
- Website: https://solanacdn.com
- GitHub: https://github.com/pipenetwork/agave-solana
About Pipe Network
Pipe Network is described as a global edge infrastructure company built on Solana. The network operates more than 35,000 hyperlocal PoP nodes worldwide, providing distributed storage with fast reads and real-time data delivery. Pipe’s overlay continuously tracks latency, loss, and jitter across every path and routes traffic along the fastest available option.
Contact
CEO
David Rhodus
Pipe Network
Email: [email protected]