Enterprise networking vendor Cisco said the FIFA World Cup 2014 will generate 4.3 exabytes of IP traffic, which is three times the amount of monthly IP traffic currently generated by Brazil.
Internet traffic generated by 60,000 people in a stadium and traveling to games will surpass the busy-hour traffic from 94 million smartphone subscribers in Brazil.
In addition, global IP traffic for fixed and mobile connections is expected to reach 1.6 zettabytes — more than one and a half trillion gigabytes per year by 2018, said Cisco Visual Networking Index Global Forecast and Service Adoption for 2013 to 2018.
The majority of traffic will originate from devices other than personal computers (PCs) for the first time in the history of the Internet. Wi-Fi traffic will exceed wired traffic for the first time and high-definition (HD) video will generate more traffic than standard definition (SD) video.
By 2018 there will be nearly as many machine-to-machine (M2M) connections as there are people on earth. Smart cars will have nearly four M2M modules per car.
IP Traffic
Mobile and portable devices other than PCs will drive the majority of traffic by 2018.
In 2013, 33 percent of IP traffic originated with non-PC devices, however, by 2018, the non-PC share of IP traffic will grow to 57 percent. PC-originated traffic will grow at a 10 percent CAGR, while other devices / connections will have higher traffic growth rates over the forecast period including TVs (18 percent), tablets (74 percent), smartphones (64 percent) and M2M connections (84 percent).
Busy-hour Internet traffic increased 32 percent in 2013, compared to 25 percent growth in average Internet traffic.
Metro traffic will grow nearly twice as fast as long-haul traffic from 2013 to 2018. This growth is due in part to content delivery networks, which will carry more than half of total Internet traffic by 2018.
IP Video
IP video will be 79 percent of all IP traffic by 2018, up from 66 percent in 2013.
Ultra HD video will account for 11 percent of IP video traffic by 2018, up from 0.1 percent in 2013. HD video will account for 52 percent of IP video traffic by 2018 (up from 36 percent) and SD will account for the remaining 37 percent (down from 64 percent).
IP Traffic by Access Type
Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 61 percent of IP traffic by 2018. Wi-Fi will be 49 percent and cellular will be 12 percent. Fixed traffic will be only 39 percent of total IP traffic by 2018. In comparison, Wi-Fi was 41 percent; cellular was 3 percent; and fixed was 56 percent in 2013.
Wi-Fi and mobile-connected devices will generate 76 percent of Internet traffic by 2018, Wi-Fi will be 61 percent and cellular will be 15 percent. Fixed traffic will be only 24 percent of total Internet traffic by 2018. In comparison, Wi-Fi was 55 percent; cellular was 4 percent; and fixed was 41 percent in 2013.
Devices / Connections
By 2018, there will be nearly 21 billion global network connections (fixed/mobile personal devices, M2M connections, et al.), up from about 12.4 billion connections in 2013.
There will be 2.7 networked devices/connections globally per capita by 2018, up from 1.7 per capita in 2013.
There will be 7.3 billion M2M connections globally, or nearly one M2M connection per capita, based on a 7.6 billon population by 2018.
There will be 10 billion IPv6-capable fixed and mobile devices in 2018, up from 2 billion in 2013.