Solana Reports Network Congestion as Cause for Downgrade of Beta Cluster

On April 19th, Solana reported in a post that at approximately 13:46:16 Beijing time on February 25th, the reason for the downgrade of Solana’s main network Beta cluster was due to congestion in the main block propagation protocol “Turbine”. Abnormal network traffic caused Turbine capacity to saturate, forcing most block data to be transmitted through the extremely slow backup block repair protocol. The core engineer has determined that this issue is caused by a logical failure in deduplication in the fragment forwarding service.

Solana: On February 25th, the main network malfunctioned due to congestion in the main block propagation protocol “Turbine”

Introduction

Solana, one of the most promising blockchain projects, recently reported a network congestion issue that led to the downgrade of its main network Beta cluster. According to a post made by Solana on April 19, 2021, the network congestion occurred at approximately 13:46:16 Beijing time on February 25, 2021. The main reason for the downgrade was congestion in the main block propagation protocol “Turbine”. This caused Turbine capacity to saturate, forcing most block data to be transmitted through the extremely slow backup block repair protocol. The core engineer at Solana has identified that the issue was caused by a logical failure in deduplication in the fragment forwarding service. In this article, we will explore what happened and what Solana is doing to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

What is Solana?

Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform designed to support scalable, secure, and decentralized applications. It uses a unique design that allows for high throughput and low latency, making it ideal for use cases such as decentralized finance, NFT marketplaces, social media networks, and more. By providing a scalable, global infrastructure, Solana aims to become the go-to blockchain platform for developers and businesses worldwide.

What Happened?

On February 25th, 2021, the Solana network experienced a significant spike in network traffic that led to congestion and slowed down the validation process. This sudden increase in traffic caused Turbine capacity to saturate, resulting in most block data being transmitted through the extremely slow backup block repair protocol. The Solana team discovered that the root cause of the issue was a logical failure in deduplication in the fragment forwarding service. This failure resulted in the failure of continuous consensus upgrades and forced the Solana team to downgrade the Beta cluster.

What Solana is Doing

After the incident, the Solana team has been working hard to ensure that this issue doesn’t happen again. They have implemented several changes to the network to prevent similar congestion in the future. Some of the changes made include adding network monitoring and alerting capabilities, improving the performance of the underlying hardware, optimizing the codebase, and improving the Turbofan cloning process. These changes will ensure that the network can handle sudden spikes in traffic without experiencing any drop in performance or slowing down the validation process.

Conclusion

The Solana network congestion that led to the downgrade of the Beta cluster was a significant challenge that presented the team with an opportunity to improve the network’s performance. The Solana team has learned valuable lessons from this experience and taken steps to ensure that the network is more robust, efficient, and scalable. As the Solana ecosystem continues to grow, the team will be working hard to ensure that the network remains highly performant and can handle any future spikes in network traffic.

FAQs

Q: What is Solana?

A: Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform designed to support scalable, secure, and decentralized applications.

Q: What caused the network congestion on the Solana network?

A: The congestion was caused by a significant spike in network traffic that led to congestion and slowed down the validation process.

Q: What is Solana doing to prevent similar issues in the future?

A: Solana has implemented several changes to the network, including adding network monitoring and alerting capabilities, improving the performance of the hardware, optimizing the codebase, and improving the Turbofan cloning process.