According to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index forecast, the annual Internet Protocol (IP) traffic in India will show massive growth between 2014 and 2019. The same can be said for IP traffic on a global scale too, with it expected to touch 2 zettabytes within the next 4 years. The change will be the result of more web users, increased machine-to-machine (M2M) connections, better broadband speeds and so on.
Cisco has added up all these variables and more, to come to the conclusion that the worldwide IP traffic’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 23 percent during 2014 to 2019. Last year drew 59.9 exabytes of IP traffic each month and 2019 is supposedly going to achieve 168 exabytes of the same monthly. If you add up all traffic during the ‘Internet years’ from 1984 to 2013, the figure you get is likely to match what will be witnessed in 2019.
Another gargantuan force behind the momentum will be new and advanced video services like ultra HD, 360 and spherical. 80 percent of all IP traffic in 2019 (as compared to 67 percent in 2014) may driven by IP video. The Internet of Things which has devices and machines ‘talking’ to each other, is already shaping into the next big wave to hit technology after smartphones. Smart TVs, connected home appliances and wearable gadgets will greatly add to IP traffic by 2019.
Last year saw 39 percent of the world, or 2.8 billion people, accessing the web. 2019 may welcome 3.9 billion Internet users, which might account for 51 percent of the projected population. Considering India’s dense population what is only set to swell further, a huge portion of the IP traffic will originate from here. Cisco points out that it will take 32 years (1984 to 2016) for us to collectively generate the first zettabyte of IP traffic on a yearly basis.
But if the company’s latest forecast turns out to be right, 3 more years will be enough to get to the next zettabyte mark, which means we’ll see 2 zettabytes of IP traffic per year starting from 2019. By then, India will be able to boast of the fourth highest IP traffic growth rate on the globe at 33 percent CAGR during the predicted period.