[164972] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: How big is the Internet?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Patrick W. Gilmore)
Wed Aug 14 16:27:38 2013
From: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick@ianai.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.GSO.2.00.1308141318360.25159@clifden.donelan.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 16:27:00 -0400
To: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
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On Aug 14, 2013, at 15:00 , Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com> wrote:
> I should have remembered, NANOG prefers to correct things. So here =
are
> several estimates about how much IP/Internet traffic is downloaded
> in a month. Does anyone have better numbers, or better souces of
> numbers that can be shared?
I think you are not defining things precisely enough to be corrected. =
What does "downloaded" mean? For instance:
1) If a Google server pulls traffic from another Google server in =
another datacenter over the Google backbone, is that "downloaded"?
2) How about if an an Akamai server pulls traffic from another Akamai =
server in the same building but two different networks?
3) How about if the two servers are on the same switch?
4) What if I am playing X-Box with another user on Comcast on the same =
head end?
5) Two different head ends in the same city?
6) Different cities?
Etc.
It is actually even harder than the above illustrates. Most people =
define "Mbps on the Internet" as inter-AS bits. But then what about =
Akamai AANP nodes, Google GGC nodes, Netflix Open Connect nodes, etc.? =
They are all inside the AS. Given that Akamai claims to be 20% of all =
broadband traffic, Google is on the same order, and NF claims to be 30% =
of US peak-evening traffic, it seems like it would be foolish to ignore =
this traffic.
I could go on, but you get the point. Definitions are a bitch.
Once you define what you mean by "how bit is the Internet", I'll be =
happy to spout off about how big it is. :)
All that said: My back-of-the-envelope math says the Internet is order =
of 1 exabyte/day, as defined by my own rules on what counts as "the =
Internet"[*]. I could easily be wrong, but you asked.
--=20
TTFN,
patrick
[*] I count Company-to-Company traffic. This is _mostly_ inter-AS =
traffic, but on-net nodes (e.g. Akamai, Google, NF) -> Provider _do_ =
count. Things like Google -> Google over Google backbone do not count. =
Things like as701 -> as702 would count, but not as701 -> as701, even if =
the traffic is between two single-homed customers. It is a weird =
definition, but that's how I define it. (Although I may be biased, since =
counting only inter-AS traffic leaves off $SOME_PERCENTAGE of the =
traffic from my company.)
> Arbor/Merit/Michigan Internet Observatory: 9,000 PB/month (2009)
> Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies: 7,500-12,000 PB/month (2009)
>=20
> Cisco Visual Network Index:
> Total IP: 55,553 PB/month (2013)
> Fixed IP: 39,295 PB/month (2013)
> Managed IP: 14,679 PB/month (2013)
> Mobile Data: 1,578 PB/month (2013)
> Telegeography via ITU report: 44,000 PB/month (2012)
> National Security Agency: 55,680 PB/month (2013)
>=20
>=20
> Individual providers/countries
> Australian Bureau of Statistics (AU only) : 184 PB/month (2012)
> AT&T Big Petabyte report (AT&T only): 990 PB/month (2013)
> CTIA mobile traffic (US only): 69 PB/month (2011)
> London School of Economics (Europe only): 3,600 PB/month (2012)
> TATA Communications: 1,600 PB/month (2013)
>=20
> Historical:
> NSFNET: 0.015 PB/month (1994)
>=20
>=20
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