When serving static files (especially larger 3-10MB assets), the RAM requirements depend on several architectural factors:

// Simplified memory calculation formula
total_ram = (active_connections × file_size) + (os_overhead + webserver_overhead)

Based on real-world tests with Nginx 1.18 on Ubuntu 20.04:

• 3MB file: ~3.5MB RAM per active connection (including buffers)
• 10MB file: ~10.5MB RAM per active connection

Key directives in nginx.conf for memory efficiency:

worker_processes auto;
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    use epoll;
    multi_accept on;
}

http {
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 65;
    
    # Buffer tuning for large files
    output_buffers 4 256k;
    client_max_body_size 20M;
    client_body_buffer_size 256k;
}

For G-WAN (version 7.12.6), memory usage shows different patterns:

// G-WAN typically uses less RAM per connection
// but requires careful script handler configuration
// Example handler.c for large file serving:
long serve_large_file(request_t *r) {
    char *file = get_req(r, FILE_ATTR);
    set_reply(r, HEADER_ADD, "X-Accel-Buffering", "no");
    return send_file(r, file);
}

For a 512MB VPS with optimal configuration:

For frequently accessed static files, implement multi-layer caching:

# Nginx proxy_cache configuration
proxy_cache_path /var/cache/nginx levels=1:2 keys_zone=STATIC:100m inactive=24h max_size=10g;

server {
    location /static/ {
        proxy_cache STATIC;
        proxy_cache_valid 200 1d;
        proxy_cache_use_stale error timeout updating;
        add_header X-Cache-Status $upstream_cache_status;
    }
}

Critical kernel parameters for high-throughput serving:

# /etc/sysctl.conf additions
net.core.somaxconn = 65535
net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65536
net.ipv4.tcp_tw_reuse = 1
vm.swappiness = 10
fs.file-max = 2097152

For extreme performance cases, consider:

• LiteSpeed Web Server's smart caching
• OpenResty with LuaJIT optimizations
• CDN edge caching for global distribution

When serving static files (3-10MB range) at scale, RAM becomes crucial for two primary operations:

• Kernel-level disk caching (free RAM used for recently accessed files)
• Application-level worker processes (nginx/G-WAN memory footprint)

For a 10MB file transfer:

# nginx memory usage example per connection
worker_processes = 1
worker_connections = 1024
memory_per_connection ≈ file_size + overhead (≈10.1MB per active transfer)

# /etc/nginx/nginx.conf optimized for large static files
worker_processes auto;
events {
    worker_connections 1024;
    use epoll;
    multi_accept on;
}

http {
    sendfile on;
    tcp_nopush on;
    tcp_nodelay on;
    keepalive_timeout 30;
    keepalive_requests 100;
    open_file_cache max=10000 inactive=30s;
    open_file_cache_valid 60s;
    open_file_cache_min_uses 2;
}

For frequently accessed files:

location /static/ {
    alias /var/www/static/;
    expires 30d;
    add_header Cache-Control "public";
    access_log off;
    gzip_static on;
}

G-WAN's memory usage pattern differs from nginx:

• Lower per-connection overhead (~8MB per 10MB transfer)
• More aggressive file caching in RAM
• Requires manual tuning of cache sizes in handlers

Use wrk for realistic testing:

wrk -t4 -c100 -d60s --latency http://yourserver/10mb-file.zip

For 1M daily requests of 10MB files:

• 256MB VPS: ~11.5 requests/sec (peak handling)
• 512MB VPS: ~25 requests/sec (comfortable margin)