Data traffic on metropolitan (metro) access and aggregation networks is set to increase by 560 per cent by 2017, driven by demand for video and the proliferation of data centres, according to a study.
Even more significantly, the Bell Labs study for Alcatel-Lucent showed that by 2017 more than 75 per cent of that traffic will stay in metro networks, compared to 57 per cent today.
The study: 'Metro Network Traffic Growth: An Architecture Impact Study,' also indicated that traffic from video services will increase by as much as 720 per cent and data centre traffic will increase more than 440 per cent during the same time period.
Key facts of the study include:
- Total metro network traffic will increase 560 per cent by 2017;
- Video traffic will increase 720 per cent by 2017;
- Cloud and data centre traffic – consumer connections to data centres and interconnection between data centres – will increase 440 per cent by 2017;
- Total Metro traffic will grow approximately two times faster than traffic going into the backbone network by 2017; and
- By 2017, 75 per cent of total traffic will terminate within the metro network and 25 per cent of traffic will traverse the backbone network as video, data and web content is increasingly sourced from within metro networks.
Basil Alwan, head of IP routing and transport for Alcatel-Lucent, said: 'This is the first traffic study to show the real impact of growth on operator networks. The move to cloud-optimised metro networks plays to Alcatel-Lucent’s core strengths of deploying massively scalable, efficient and agile networks.
'We have unmatched expertise in IP and optical product development and deployment, and a deep-seated understanding of end-to-end network and service management, both of which are critical to handle the imminent shift in the metro architecture. Moving forward, Alcatel-Lucent will continue to develop a more SDN-enabled IP and optical portfolio to allow networks to evolve even further into a virtualised environment.'
