Internet traffic to quadruple in next four years

Networking equipment manufacturer Cisco, has predicted that the amount of traffic in 2016 will reach 1.3 zettabytes - that's about a trillion gigabytes. The company also states that more than 18.9 billion connected devices will be available in 2016, an average of 2.5 connections per person.

With global IP traffic surpassing the zettabyte (1 billion terabyte) threshold, there will be more Internet traffic in 2016 than in all years up to 2012, said Doug Webster, senior director for service provider marketing at Cisco.

According to the company, video traffic will be a major area of growth, with mobile device users expecting a similar quality as they get on wired PCs or TV sets. The highest traffic-generating countries in 2016 will be the U.S., with 22 exabytes per month, and China, with 12 exabytes per month.

"Each of us increasingly connects to the network via multiple devices in our always-on connected lifestyles," says Suraj Shetty, Cisco's vice president of product and solutions marketing.

"Whether by video phone calls, movies on tablets, web-enabled TVs, or desktop video conferencing, the sum of our actions not only creates demand for zettabytes of bandwidth, but also dramatically changes the network requirements needed to deliver on the expectations of this 'new normal'."

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