DE-CIX Frankfurt, Europe’s largest Internet Exchange, reached a new milestone in data throughput, recording a peak traffic of over 15 terabits per second (Tbit/s) on 19th September at 9:26 pm (CEST).
This achievement coincided with the commencement of the UEFA Champions League season 2023/24 and a software update by a prominent smartphone manufacturer. To put this into perspective, 15 terabits per second equates to streaming 5 million videos in HD quality simultaneously.
The surge in data traffic showcases a nearly 40 percent increase since the beginning of 2022 and an impressive 150 percent increase over the last five years at one of the world’s major Internet Exchanges. In analog terms, visualizing the data flood is awe-inspiring — 15 Terabits of data would fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools (50m x 25m x 2m) every second. This mirrors the amount of water flowing over 385 Niagara Falls per second if one bit equaled one milliliter of water.
Thomas King, Chief Technology Officer at DE-CIX, highlighted the factors driving this surge and emphasized the necessity of constantly expanding capacities to accommodate the escalating data influx.
“Data records will not only be set in parallel to software and gaming releases or major sporting events. The increasing use of digital and AI services (e.g. text and voice applications), cloud services and other data-intensive applications, which are becoming part of everyday life not only in companies but also in private use, will also be responsible for growth in data throughput,” Thomas King said.
DE-CIX, as the world’s leading operator of Internet Exchanges, has played a pivotal role in shaping guiding principles for the present and future of the Internet since the inception of the commercial Internet. The company operates critical IT infrastructure, facilitating seamless, fast, and secure data exchange among people, enterprises, and organizations globally.
DE-CIX offers peering, cloud, and other interconnection services in almost 50 metro regions across Europe, Africa, North America, the Middle East, and Asia. The interconnection ecosystem is accessible from data centers in over 600 cities worldwide and interconnects thousands of network operators (carriers), Internet service providers (ISPs), content providers, and enterprise networks from over 100 countries. DE-CIX Frankfurt, with 34 Exabytes of annual traffic in 2022 and close to 1100 connected networks, stands as one of the largest Internet Exchanges worldwide.
