Middle East in top two regions for fastest growth in IP network traffic

The study projects that global IP traffic will increase fivefold by 2013 and with a compound annual growth rate of 51%, it is the Middle East and Africa regions that are the two fastest growing regions.

The Cisco VNI Forecast was developed to estimate global Internet Protocol (IP) traffic growth, with projections being based on the organisation's assessment and modelling of independent analysts' forecasts.

Highlights of the research included the finding that the economic downturn has only slightly tempered traffic growth, with global IP traffic expected to increase fivefold from 2008 to 2013.

The VNI findings also revealed that video would be the major IP traffic growth driver, with the sum of all forms of video exceeding 90% of global consumer IP traffic by 2013. Video communications traffic, which includes video-over instant messaging and video calls, will increase ten-fold from 2008 to 2013.

The high volume of video traffic will lead to the proliferation of all types of screens, along with other consumer devices, which will have an exponential effect on demand. The increased traffic will lead to the number of networked devices with screens multiplying, something that, in turn, will lead to even more video consumption.

Larger screen sizes will accelerate the demand for higher-resolution video, thereby increasing the IP traffic required for each stream. By 2013, the surface area of the world's digital screens will be nearly 11 billion square feet (1 billion square metres), or the equivalent of 2 billion large-screen TVs. If laid end-to-end, these screens would circle the globe more than 48 times.

Mobile video is the fastest-growing application category measured within the Cisco VNI and its use will roughly double mobile traffic each year from 2008 to 2013. Almost 64% of the world's mobile data traffic will be video in 2013 and by this date, passive networking, such as DVR recording while watching other network programming, online storage backups, or ambient video from devices such as security or nanny-cams, will add another six 'network hours' to each day. At present, there are 36 hours in a 'network day' and by 2013, this will have increased to 48 hours.

Sam Alkharrat, Managing Director of Cisco Gulf and Pakistan, believes that the Cisco VNI findings highlights the increasing reliance on global network video streaming.

"As the worldwide leader in networking technology for the Internet, Cisco has a unique ability to gather and interpret IP network data. Our annual VNI forecast demonstrates how visual networking is fundamentally changing the way we communicate, collaborate, view and share all types of content. It also provides another example of the extent that we partner with our customers to help them prepare and take full advantage of the dynamic network landscape in the years ahead," he added.