How big is the Internet?
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The Internet is arguably the largest machine on the planet, but estimates of its size vary.
One reliable measure is the traffic, which has just hit a record. Global data through Internet Exchange operator DE-CIX topped 25Tbit/s on Tuesday afternoon.
This represents more than a doubling of global peering traffic at DE-CIX since 2020, up 130% in five years. Last year saw traffic peak at the site in Dallas, where the region crossed the 1 Tbit/s threshold for the first time.
This time, the global traffic peak did not coincide with a traffic peak in a regional IX, but was spread across multiple regions, from Dallas and Madrid to Frankfurt and Istanbul.
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“The peak is the result of higher than usual data traffic from the confluence of multiple events, including the live streaming of sport and software updates, alongside the usual consumption of digital content and services,” said Dr Thomas King, CTO of DE-CIX.
“This peak demonstrates the power of peering, the glue that binds together the different networks – including networks that supply video content, software downloads, and mobile Internet – that make up the Internet.”
Another measure is the amount of data that is carried. In 2024, the operator saw a total throughput of 68 exabytes across 3,400 connected networks at its sites, another record for global data traffic volume in a 12-month period.
DE-CIX launched its first Internet Exchange in Frankfurt, in 1995 and so is 30 years old this year, It provides datacentre and carrier-neutral exchange points worldwide for Internet, cloud, content providers, and enterprise networks. The globally interconnected DE-CIX platform is accessible from data centers in over 600 cities and interconnects more than 4000 networks worldwide.
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