The number of network-connected devices will exceed 15 billion with global Internet traffic quadrupling by 2015 to reach 966 exabytes (EB) per year, according to the Visual Networking Index (VNI) Forecast (2010-15) by Cisco.
One EB is equal to one billion gigabytes.
The report highlighted that the Internet traffic between 2014 and 2015 alone will be 200EB, which is greater than the total amount of Internet Protocol traffic generated globally in 2010.
The Internet traffic is expected to reach 1zettabyte, which is equal to a sextillion bytes, or a trillion gigabytes, by 2015, Cisco said.
The VNI Forecast (2010-2015) revealed that global IP traffic growth is driven by four primary factors: increase in number of devices; more Internet users; faster broadband speed; and more video. The forecast says that by 2015, one million video minutes, which is equivalent to 674 days, will traverse the Internet every second.
In addition, the study revealed that Global IP traffic is expected to reach 80.5EB per month by 2015, up from approximately 20.2EB per month in 2010.
In 2015, average global IP traffic is expected to reach 245terabytes per second, equivalent to 200 million people streaming an HD movie (1.2 Mbps) simultaneously every day.
Geographically, by 2015, the Asia Pacific region is expected to generate the most IP traffic (24.1EB per month), surpassing last year’s topper, North America at 22.3EB per month.
The forecast says that Middle East and Africa will be the fastest-growing IP-traffic regions for the period (2010-15) which had a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), for an eightfold growth, surpassing last year’s leader Latin America (48% CAGR, sevenfold growth).
Cisco said that the global online video community will increase by approximately 500 million users by 2015, up from more than one billion Internet video users in 2010.
In 2010, PCs generated 97% of consumer Internet traffic, which is expected to decrease to 87% by 2015. However, global advanced video traffic including three-dimensional (3D) and high-definition TV (HDTV), is projected to increase 14 times between 2010 and 2015.
The study highlighted that the global mobile Internet data traffic will increase 26 times from 2010 to 2015, to 6.3EB per month (or 75EB annually); and by 2015, global peer-to-peer traffic will account for 16% of global consumer Internet traffic, down from 40% in 2010.
Cisco worldwide service provider marketing vice-president Suraj Shetty said the explosive growth in Internet data traffic, especially video, creates an opportunity in the years ahead for optimising and monetising visual, virtual and mobile Internet experiences.
