How big is the Internet?

Wed Aug 14 19:46:49 UTC 2013

On Wed, Aug 14, 2013 at 03:00:51PM -0400, Sean Donelan 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?
> 
> Arbor/Merit/Michigan Internet Observatory: 9,000 PB/month (2009)
> Minnesota Internet Traffic Studies: 7,500-12,000 PB/month (2009)
> 
> 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)
> 
> 
> 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)
> 
> Historical:
> NSFNET: 0.015 PB/month (1994)

	Well, the NSFnet numbers did not reflect CSnet or the DoD/ARPA follow on networks,
	of any of the other IPbased transmission systems of the era.

	And each of the sources you cite are undoubtedly correct and the best available.  
	Two bits of missing data prevent you from reaching your goal of traffic loading,
	across all IPbased transmission systems.

	a) duplicate suppression in the existing datasets.
	b) access to datasets for unrepresented IPbased transmission systems.

	You seem to be asking for "b".  Not sure how to correct for "a" without direct
	access to the raw data (and even then, there are issues).

	Other than more datasets, are you looking at traffic loading graphs, wiht the
	idea of projecting future loading trends?  If so, I'd be interested in your methods
	since there is some interest in what might be called  "the southern hemisphere" 
	challange.

/bill