* Data traffic (including HTTP, HTTPS, VPN and tunneling) still remains the biggest user of network by generating 28.05% of IP traffic
Cisco has updated its “Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast, 2009-2014” with some Q3 2010 usage results. The most dramatic finding: online video traffic over the Internet, now consuming 26.15% of traffic, has surpassed peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing; P2P represents 24.85% of traffic. Data traffic (including HTTP, HTTPS, VPN and tunneling) still remains the biggest user of network by generating 28.05% of IP traffic. Meanwhile, voice and video communications traffic (including VoIP and voice/video over instant messaging) generates about 2% of all traffic.
In addition to the predicted shift toward online video’s growing demand as a percentage of the traffic, overall bandwidth demand continued to grow: this year the average broadband connection generated 14.9GB of Internet traffic per month, an increase of 31% compared to 2009 usage results. “Busy hour” traffic grew even faster with a 41% growth rate since last year. According to the updated results, “Peak-hour Internet traffic is 72 percent higher than Internet traffic during an average hour.” Not surprisingly, a small group of users are using a disproportionate share of the Internet with the top 1% of broadband connections responsible for over 20% of total Internet traffic and the top 10% of connections generating over 60% of global Internet traffic.
The usage study also outlines traffic patterns by hour and it provides details according to the type of traffic by site. For example, “video-based sites, such as MySpace video and Facebook video, and software download sites, such as Windows and Symantec, were among the top sites by traffic . . . while online ad sites, such as Google Analytics and Doubleclick, were among the top sites by total number of hits.”
Our observations: we recall the days about 10 years ago when voice calls generated more network traffic than data, and video traffic wasn’t even a blip on the radar. Then data traffic surpassed voice as the biggest bandwidth user, and network engineers had to accommodate the shift. We’re obviously seeing the same kind of shift with video as it grows to consume more and more capacity. What makes video traffic engineering a bit more problematic is that the study also found online video traffic fluctuates more than file sharing traffic– compounded by the highs and lows associated with peak hour demand growth vs. average hour demands. The good news is that traffic management techniques have also improved greatly in last decade.
Our thanks to Cisco for sharing their study results. A copy of the latest update can be found here.
