Global Internet Protocol (IP) traffic is set to increase at a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46% from 2007 to 2012, nearly doubling every two years, says Cisco.
This will result in an annual bandwidth demand on the world's IP networks of more than half a zettabyte, the company says. One zettabyte is approximately equal to a billion terabytes.
According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast and Methodology, 2007-2012, the advent of rich online video communications and entertainment, as well as social networking, has greatly increased the impact of online video on the network.
In 2012, Internet video traffic alone will be 400 times the traffic carried by the US Internet backbone in 2000, it says.
The report adds that Internet video jumped from 12% of the global consumer Internet traffic in 2006, to 22% in 2007.
Video on demand, IPTV, peer-to-peer video, and Internet video are expected to account for nearly 90% of all consumer IP traffic in 2012, it says.
Business IP trends
According to Cisco, global business IP traffic is also set to grow at a CAGR of 35%, from 2007 to 2012.
The major drivers for business IP traffic growth is increased broadband penetration in the small business market and the increased adoption of advanced video communications in the enterprise, it says.
The report notes that IP traffic will grow fastest in the developing markets and Asia-Pacific, as it is growing from a lower base.
North America will continue to have the most business IP traffic in terms of volume through to 2012, followed by Asia-Pacific and Western Europe, it says.
"The broad and increasing adoption of visual networking is having a significant impact on IP traffic growth for both consumer and business services markets worldwide," said Cisco's director of operations Kumaran Nair.
Nair notes that the term "exabyte" was an unheard-of until a few years ago. However, the term is bound to become more common due to the massive growth in IP traffic.
"By 2012, we will have to re-orientate our vocabulary once again, as the metric that we need then will be the zettabyte," he says.
Share