IP Traffic To 'Double' Every Two Years

Stony Stevenson writes "Web traffic volumes will almost double every two years from 2007 to 2012, driven by video and web 2.0 applications, according to a report from Cisco Systems. Cisco's Visual Networking Index (PDF) predicts that visual networking will account for 90 percent of the traffic coursing through the world's IP networks by 2012. The upward trend is not only driven by consumer demand for YouTube clips and IPTV, according to the report, as business use of video conferencing will grow at 35 percent CAGR over the same period." I left the apostrophes around the word "double" in the title because the linked site has them, but for the life of me I can't figure out why.

Duh

[kmsigel]

I really thought traffic would level off, and maybe even drop over the next several years. The Internet is a fad. I would never tell it that, but it won't last.

In summary

[Anonymous Coward]

Network equipment vendor says "Buy more of our kit!"

Dark Fiber

[argent]

Network Scientists have discovered that the majority of the bandwidth in the Internet is "dark fiber", a mysterious substance that has the same gravitational effects on backhoes as normal fiber, but does not interact with the internet as a whole. Some believe is possible to harness this bandwidth through dark packets, but others fear the growth of pink packets (typically containing porn and spam) will eliminate any potential gains from this little-understood phenomenon. Other scientists, primarily at ISPs, believe that extracting dark money from end users through traffic surcharges is the only way to take advantage of dark fiber.

Demand doubling...What about the supply?

[elguillelmo]

Will network infrastructure meet this doubling demand? Or is net traffic going to get stuck due to a series-of-tubes shortage?

Re:Duh

[elrous0]

I'm still holding onto my AOL stock. Dial-up private networks are coming back! YOU'LL SEE!

I'll show all you doubters, and then Janine will take me back.

What's the average in centibytes per fortnight?

[davidwr]

There, got that out of the way.

A graph?

[davidwr]

And what shape would that graph have? Would it be a double-bell-curve shape or a compressed single-bell-curve shape?

Re:Jeez...

[Bandman]

I'll believe it when I get my flying car...

Re:What's the average in centibytes per fortnight?

[kmsigel]

How many 0.08 bits every 14 days. I like it.

Re:Duh

[UnknowingFool]

You forgot the part where you tell us to get off your lawn. *shakes fist*

Re:'double'

[Kingrames]

"would be 48,456 which is less than 43,518. "

want to help me with my math homework?

Re:'double'

[IGnatius T Foobar]

They predicted the amount of traffic in petabytes per month.

I'm confused. Could you express that in the more commonly accepted unit of measurement: Libraries of Congress? Thanks...

Re:'double'

[Bandman]

The worst part of that analogy is that the LoC is constantly growing.

For long term proposals, you'd need to do inflation-adjusted Libraries of Congress.

Re:'double'

[poopdeville]

Twice the volume of 2010, i.e. 24,228 would be 48,456 which is less than 43,518. So, though not quite doubled in one case listed there, to say that it would double every two years would be incorrect. And we'd be all over that if they had claimed it to be. IMHO, to say 'double' is a reasonable way to express this concept.

Twice the volume of 2010 is 4020...

Re:'double'

[murraj2]

Double ain't what it used to be, that's why I've moved on to BigDecimal.