Information technology and society: World IP traffic to reach 1.3 zettabyte by 2016

The manufacturer of network equipment Cisco Systems predicts that the volume of IP-traffic over the next five years will grow by an average of 29% per year against the growing number of network-connected mobile devices and increasing demand for digital video. In addition, the additional traffic growth will be achieved by increasing the number of electronic devices that exchange traffic (M2M-connections).

According to the forecast of the world's largest manufacturer of network devices by the end of 2016 the world IP-traffic will reach 1.3 zettabyte which is about 38 million DVD-ROM per hour. For comparison, all traffic transmitted via Internet from 1984 to 2012, was 1.3 zettabyte. Thomas Barnett, Cisco senior marketing manager said that the average volume of Internet traffic by 2016 will be 110 exabytes per month, compared to 31 exabytes per month in the past year.

Globally, the share of video on the Web will account for about 54% of the total Internet traffic, while in 2011 the figure was 51%. During the same period the traffic generated by video-conference systems will increase by 48%. The company’s report says that it will take one viewer six million years to view the entire volume of the video transmitted via IP-based networks in a month (the level of 2016).

In addition, by 2016 the number of devices connected to IP-based networks will reach 19 billion - three times more than the number of people living on the planet.