Cisco Systems has predicted that Internet networking traffic will have quadrupled between 2009 and 2014 in its Annual Visual Networking Index Forecast. It also predicted that online video will be the primary driver of that growth.
Cisco’s report says that 767 exabytes of data (one exabyte is the equivalent of one billion gigabytes) will be transferred online in 2014, and that 91% of consumer traffic will be online video, which will include both traditional web video and video-on-demand provided by television providers.
There’s also a closer milestone in Cisco’s research: Online video will surpass peer-to-peer traffic (which includes file sharing services like BitTorrent and a bulk of content piracy) for the first time this year. P2P has been the largest portion of consumer online traffic for some time now, and it will continue growing — just not anywhere near as quickly as online video.
We’ve already learned from comScore’s data that web users are watching more videos for longer than they used to, but Cisco also predicts massive growth in video calling. Remember how The Jetsons promised a future in which people made phone calls with video screens? That future is gradually becoming more than just a cartoon reality.
Devices like Apple TV and those running Google TV could contribute to increased online video usage up, too.
The Chart
You can create a custom chart at Cisco’s website for the Annual Visual Networking Index Forecast, but here’s the chart that shows how different forms of traffic will grow over the next five years.
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Tags: bittorrent, cisco, News, p2p, peer to peer, streaming video, traffic, video calling, video conferencing, visual networking index