Speeds of 10 Gbps and above are no longer exclusive to telecom operators. For e-commerce, they guarantee a stable checkout during seasonal peaks; for fintech, they ensure consistent p99 authorization times; for media, they enable 4K/8K streaming without buffering; for AI/ML, they provide fast dataset and checkpoint transfers. But having a “fat pipe” alone is not enough. What businesses need is predictability: consistent behavior under mixed loads, no jitter or packet loss, controlled p95/p99 tails, and clear scaling procedures.
This article explains how Unihost builds its networking layer to transform raw bandwidth into measurable product outcomes.
Backbone and Routing: Closer to Users, Shorter Paths
High-speed networking is not just about “more gigabits.” It’s about delivering traffic predictably and efficiently. Unihost operates a multi-homed backbone with multiple upstream providers and active peering at key IX points. Our BGP policies use LocalPref/MED and communities for fine-grained control, blackholing, and quick rerouting in case of provider degradation. For public services, we employ anycast routing to direct users to the nearest point of presence; for private workloads, we implement strict segmentation.
The result: fewer AS hops, stabilized jitter, and more predictable p95/p99 latencies.
Channel Profiles and QoS: Managing Tails, Not Just Peaks
Different workloads have different sensitivities. Database replication should not push aside user traffic, and video ingest must not disrupt payment authorizations. Unihost applies channel profiles and QoS/CoS policies:
- 10/25 Gbps for single-server APIs, OLTP/OLAP, regional streaming.
- 40/100 Gbps for AI/ML clusters, CDN origins, ETL/backup windows, inter-DC workloads.
- QoS/ECN to prioritize flows and signal congestion before packet drops.
- LAG/ECMP for aggregation and even flow distribution, preventing “tooth-like” load patterns.
Outcome: predictable behavior, stable tails, and improved user experience even under mixed load.
NIC as a Processor: Offload, RSS, SR-IOV
At 10+ Gbps, CPU overhead for packet processing becomes critical. We treat the NIC as a co-processor:
- Checksum, TSO/LRO, GRO/GSO offloads reduce CPU cycles.
- RSS/RPS with IRQ pinning ensures NUMA-aware packet distribution.
- SR-IOV provides virtual functions for isolation and reduced hypervisor overhead.
- DPDK/AF_XDP/eBPF datapaths bypass kernel bottlenecks in latency-sensitive use cases.
- Jumbo frames, where safe, reduce per-packet overhead.
The outcome: lower CPU utilization and more stable p95/p99 latency.
Kernel Tuning: Queues, Buffers, Congestion Control
Default Linux settings are not built for consistent performance at tens of gigabits. Unihost applies:
- net.core/net.ipv4 tuning (buffers, backlog, rmem/wmem).
- TCP congestion control: BBR/BBRv2 for WAN and backbone, CUBIC/HyStart++ for low-latency LAN.
- Queue tuning (RPS/RFS/XPS) for cache locality.
- HTTP/3/QUIC at the application layer for faster connections and resilience against packet loss.
Effect: fewer retransmits, controlled tails, and smoother user experience.
IPv6, MTU, and Clean L2/L3 Design
The high-speed era demands IPv6-first policies: less NAT complexity, more predictable routing, simpler ACL management. We maintain consistent MTU policies — jumbo frames where feasible, strict alignment otherwise, to avoid fragmentation and PMTUD black holes. L2 domains are kept clean: minimal broadcast noise, fault domains segmented logically, standardized NIC drivers and firmware to prevent instability.
DDoS Profiles: Preserving Services, Not Just Blocking Traffic
The bigger the pipe, the bigger the attack surface. Unihost applies layered DDoS defense:
- Scrubbing and filtering at the edge.
- ACL/CoPP at perimeter routers and ToR switches.
- Adaptive profiles for volumetric, L3/L4, and L7 slow-connection attacks.
- Regular drills to validate escalation procedures.
The goal is not simply “blocking everything” but preserving legitimate traffic and services under attack.
Storage and NVMe: Matching Disk to Network
A 40/100 Gbps link can bottleneck on disk throughput. Unihost builds storage with workload-specific profiles:
- Local NVMe U.2/U.3 arrays with RAID tuned for write-heavy or mixed loads.
- Journals/redo logs placed on the fastest devices.
- NVMe-oF/ROCE/iSER for shared pools in clusters.
- Traffic separation for replication vs. client I/O.
Result: end-to-end throughput consistency, ensuring the disk layer doesn’t “choke” the network.
Multi-Region Architecture: HA/DR with Canary and Rollback
Speed alone doesn’t ensure uptime. Unihost designs active-active/active-standby topologies with clear RTO/RPO. Canary cutovers, instant rollback options, anycast endpoints, and regular DR rehearsals make resilience a repeatable process, not an improvisation.
Outcome: near-zero downtime, faster rollouts, and global availability.
Observability: Metrics and Alerts on Tails
At 10+ Gbps, averages hide problems. Unihost focuses on tail visibility:
- L3–L7 metrics: latency, jitter, p95/p99, packet loss, retransmits, queue saturation.
- Tracing/logging correlated with regions and releases.
- Alerts based on tail latency dynamics, not just averages.
- Runbooks and postmortems to refine playbooks and BGP policies.
Outcome: reduced MTTR, improved SLA compliance, stronger product metrics (conversion, retention).
Automation and IaC: Speed Without Drift
Manual changes are a liability. Unihost uses Terraform/Ansible to codify networking: LAG/ECMP, VLAN/VRF, ACL, CoPP, interface profiles, routes, BGP communities. All changes flow through CI/CD pipelines with reviews, canary application, and automatic rollback. Centralized secret management adds security.
Effect: reproducibility, faster scaling, and stability across regions.
Use Cases: Where 10/25/40/100 Gbps Drive Business Value
- Fintech and payments: stable p99 authorization latency under transaction spikes, country-level segmentation, strict SLOs.
- E-commerce/marketplaces: seamless flash sales, IX proximity reducing checkout lag, QoS preventing replication from impacting customers.
- Media/streaming: hybrid CPU+GPU nodes for ingest/transcoding, smooth 4K/8K delivery.
- AI/ML/data engineering: 25/40/100 Gbps interconnects, NVMe scratch, fast pipelines for training/inference.
- SaaS/API platforms: predictable scaling with ECMP, configuration templates, and automated SLO checks.
Economics: Measuring Results, Not Just Gigabits
The cost per gigabit is irrelevant without business context. Unihost helps calculate cost per outcome: minutes of downtime, revenue lost to p99 latency in checkout, retransmits during video streaming, delayed releases from manual ops. With QoS, offload, observability, and IaC, networks become business accelerators, reducing TCO while boosting revenue through better UX, conversion, and retention.
Deployment: The First 30 Days
- Days 1–3: Briefing, goals, SLOs, IX mapping, payment approval.
- Week 2: Pilot setup, NIC/kernel tuning, QoS profiles, observability stack, canary windows.
- Week 3: Load testing, DDoS drills, BGP tuning.
- Week 4: Production cutover, final reports, quarterly scaling roadmap.
Outcome: migration becomes a controlled routine, not a heroic overnight fight.
Conclusion
The high-speed era isn’t just about bigger pipes. It’s about network culture: BGP design, IX proximity, QoS and ECN, NIC offload and kernel tuning, DDoS profiles, observability, and IaC. Unihost delivers all of this: predictable p95/p99 performance, resilience under attacks and peaks, procedural scaling, and SLA-backed reliability.
Accelerate your business with a network that delivers results, not surprises. Choose Unihost today — we’ll design the right channel profile, tune routing and QoS for your SLOs, and migrate production with zero downtime.