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It's time to start talking about IP traffic in terms of zettabytes, according to Cisco, which is projecting annual global IP traffic to be 1.3 zettabytes -- the equivalent of a trillion gigabytes -- by 2016.
That was one of the key data points gleaned from Cisco's Visual Networking Index Forecast (2011-2016), an annual report that looks at global IP traffic and how it's consumed and distributed. Cisco released initial results of the VNI forecast Wednesday.
With global IP traffic at an expected 1.3 zettabytes a year within the next four years, Cisco also projects that the increase in traffic from 2015 to 2016 alone will be 330 exabytes, which isn't far off the 369 exabytes in traffic calculated for all of 2011.
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"We're breaking the zettabyte barrier soon," said Thomas Barnett, senior manager, service provider marketing at Cisco. "While the growth rates aren't always going to be as astounding as they have been, what is still striking is the actual volume, which is huge."
One way to think about it, Barnett explained, is to consider that the amount of IP traffic generated from 1984 to the end of 2012 will be surpassed by the amount of global traffic in 2016 alone.
The drivers for that mushrooming traffic are the usual suspects: an increase in the number of IP-accessible devices, faster broadband speeds, more overall users of the Internet (led by the Asia Pacific region) and a whole heck of a lot more video.
By 2016, Cisco projects, 1.2 million video minutes will travel the Internet every second -- the equivalent of 833 days. There are expected to be 1.5 billion Internet video users by 2016, up from 792 million now.
The growth of Wi-Fi will also be a big contributor, Cisco says, with over half of the world's Internet traffic expected to come from Wi-Fi connections by 2016. There will also be an expected five billion public Wi-Fi hotspots by that time.
"Mobility really is key," Barnett said. "That's the networking choice from an access perspective."
NEXT: IP Projections By Region, How SPs Should View Changes
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