P2P Represents 44% Of All Bandwidth Consumed On The Net

As more physical objects get connected to the Net (Physical World Connection), and more video producing devices (video cameras, camera phones, surveillance cameras etc) do too, P2P control solutions and/or Internet protocols that make file sharing and transferring more efficient, will be places to watch.

Peer-to-peer file-sharing applications represent 44% of all bandwidth consumed on networks operated by North American Internet service providers, up from around 41% a year ago, according to a survey by Sandvine, a vendor of bandwidth-management systems.

The three biggest overall generators of Internet traffic according to Sandvine’s May survey were:
- peer-to-peer file sharing (43.5%)
- Web browsing (27.3%)
- streaming media (14.8%)

The largest bandwidth hog is streaming video. Who is probably the biggest hog, YouTube.

Should YouTube be responsible for implementing controls?

Should ISP's charge YouTube for the drain on their network?

Wouldn't it be in their best interest to find a solution?

Imagine what happens with high-definition video.

P2P accounted for an even bigger portion of upstream direction, consuming more than twice as much traffic as all other traffic combined. The biggest traffic generator in the upstream direction is peer-to-peer file sharing (75.0%)

From Wikipedia :
P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and realtime data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.

CTO Of Nortel Discusses Upcoming Bandwidth Boom

The Financial Times has a piece on the upcoming bandwidth boom. The author is John Roese is chief technology officer at Nortel.

Some interesting points:

At the heart of the internet are fat "pipes" - the fibre-optic equivalents of the LA Freeway - which can carry huge amounts of "traffic" in the form of voice, data, video and any combination thereof. The myriad on and off-ramps - connections that telecom service providers have hooked up to it - are not quite so fat or quite so fast.

Downloading a DVD on demand takes the equivalent bandwidth of 16m web page downloads, 400,000 e-mails, or nearly 2,000 iTunes songs (the size of web, music and e-mail files varies greatly, but these are realistic averages). And one movie on a dual-layer Blu-ray disk consumes the staggering equivalent of 100m web page downloads, 2.5m e-mails, and more than 12,000 iTunes songs.

The new services are gobbling up huge amounts of bandwidth, to the point where we have virtually eliminated the "bandwidth glut" of unused capacity that was built up during the late 1990s dotcom boom. We are, in fact, speeding towards a "bandwidth crisis".

On top of that, we are fast approaching a state of hyperconnectivity, where the number of devices, machines, and applications connected to the network will far exceed the number of people connected to it.

we need to expand the freeway but without the year-long roadworks that cause endless frustration. I would advocate doing this with advanced optical technology that essentially allows vehicles to be stacked on top of each other. This enables up to 10 times as much information to be carried in each lane of traffic without physically widening the road.

Do we need a boom in bandwidth or just bandwidth efficiency?

Ponderings about bandwidth.

Upcoming Video Boom Offers Many Opportunities

According to Cisco, Internet video will account for half of all consumer Internet traffic by 2012.

In Cisco's Visual Networking Index, video already accounts for a quarter of all consumer Internet traffic. That number is expected to rise to 32 percent by the end of the year.

Where are the opportunities?



Areas I would watch for:

1. Transmission efficiency. Hardware and software that can speed up all types of video transmission.

2. Video search engines. While it's rather easy to scan text to provide relevant related searches, a search engine that can scan audio for words that are relevant will be big. I am thinking of how Google offers the "cache" feature in search results, but this becomes available for video searches as well.

a. this finds a video that is relevant to my search
b. takes me to the place in the video that pertains to my search.

Example: Bill Buckner blunder in 86' Mets victory. I don't remember what inning or game it was, but the search engine takes me to the spot in the video where the blunder occurred.

3. Devices. Soon all camera phones and video cameras will be connected to the Net and will be able to transmit live video feed. Add this to the numerous traffic cameras, surveillance (bank, building, residential) that already exist that will be connected. Opportunities: A massive number of IP addresses will be needed (IPv6) and this will create overload on some networks...alternate methods of Internet connection needed (White Space). In addition device relation management (DRM) software will be big. DRM is enterprise software that enables the monitoring, managing, and servicing of intelligent devices over the Internet.

4. Advertising. I don't mean just placing a video ad next to search results or next to content. I think there is a huge opportunity in placing an ad WITHIN a video. You see backstops at baseball games with ads on them, they are able to place a relevant ad according to the location of the viewer. (NY Yankee game shows Wiz Sports but a viewer watching the game in Florida might see a Sports Authority ad).

The real opportunity for video creators and distributors, is an application that allows an ad/graphic to be placed/inserted within the video.

Example: You're videotaping Johnny's soccer game and transmitting live on the Net to his grandparents. Just like Adsense, you will be able to earn revenue from an advertiser inserting an ad/graphic on the soccer field. Johnny's soccer field has a big Adidas logo on it. (think of the first down marker yellow line in football). A way to monetize the upcoming surge in video content.

Just some ideas I think will come with the video boom.

Any others you can think of?

Corporations Fail To Budget For Upcoming Bandwidth Boom

Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch and of IT Doesn't Matter states the information technology (IT) departments won't matter in the next few years as computing takes place on the Net, versus on the PC.

Will corporations be prepared for the upcoming bandwidth boom?

Enterprise bandwidth requirements will more than double in the next five years, yet budgets will only increase by five per cent, according to a survey released today.

The research, carried out by Omniboss - a division of market analysis firm Vanson Bourne - among 100 senior IT decision makers found a further one in five executives thought their bandwidth requirements were likely to grow by 150 per cent or more.

Nearly one third (30 per cent) believed voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and converging voice, data and multimedia technologies such as video on demand would also have a significant effect on traffic in the future.

Nortel Solves Bandwidth Explosion With Adaptive Optical Engine...40-100 Gbps

Nortel introduces the industry's first optical technology that can deliver both 40G and 100G network capacity with the Adaptive Optical Engine.

Nortel's 40G/100G Adaptive Optical Engine is a revolutionary technology platform that enables both 40Gbps and 100Gbps transmission over today's existing infrastructures, increasing capacity 4 and 10-fold respectively without complex network re-engineering.

Nortel's 40G/100G solution is particularly intriguing because it allows carriers the use their existing 10G network with minor upgrades to deliver 40G and all of the new capabilities that affords.

Comcast's live 100 G network trial will be first time real traffic is run over a 100G wavelength on its existing network that is also carrying live 10G and 40G links.

"We can only imagine what new innovations may be sparked by the capabilities made possible with this technology," said Philippe Morin, president, Metro Ethernet Networks, Nortel

The End Of The Internet?....Or The Start Of Something Bigger

Another disruption coming, who wins, who loses.

The New York Times has a story called Video Hogs Causing Internet Traffic Jam

Last year, by one estimate, the video site YouTube, owned by Google, consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet did in 2000

a research firm projected that user demand for the Internet could outpace network capacity by 2011.

Nemertes Research, which predicted the bandwidth squeeze by 2011

Experts say, say, high-speed networks are increasingly the economic and scientific petri dishes of innovation, spawning new businesses, markets and jobs. If American investment lags behind, they warn, the nation risks losing competitiveness to countries that are making the move to higher-speed Internet access a priority.

And upgrades needed in data centers are going to be a lot more expensive than in the past, now that all the excess capacity left over after the dot-com bubble burst has been gobbled up

Hewlett Packard's $1.6B buy of Opsware, should give us some clues on what to look for.

Some more ponderings on bandwidth.