Brazil sees internet traffic rise, but network is ‘resilient’
Bnamericas - 19/03/2020 - [gif]
Assunto: Infraestrutura Internet
The social isolation forced by the COVID-19 crisis has already impacted internet traffic in Brazil and changed patterns of data consumption in the country.
However, the increase in internet use has not caused any major problems for the networks so far.
“The growth we've seen between Tuesday and [Thursday] was around 5%. It's not particularly abnormal, although it does represent a certain jump. We were already growing. Since last December we've seen growth of 2 terabits of traffic,” Julio Sirota, infrastructure manager at IX.Br, told BNamericas.
IX.Br is controlled by the Brazilian Internet steering committee (CGI) and it manages the interconnection and exchange of most internet traffic in the country.
IX.br has recorded impressive growth in recent months. Aggregate traffic grew 60% over the past year and continues to expand. It showed an increase of 43% in six months, and 25% in the last three months.
IX.br's installed capacity is 25tbps (terabits per second) and current traffic is at around 10tbps.
OTTS AND STREAMING
This Brazilian network of internet exchange points (IXPs) is responsible for serving carriers and internet service providers, among other things. They connect to IX.br to exchange traffic between themselves and to obtain content, such as from OTTs (Netflix and others).
The main change observed so far, according to Sirota, has been in the profile and use of the network. According to the executive, usage is now more intense throughout the daytime and particularly in the afternoons, more resembling the usual pattern of use on a Sunday.
With streaming of videos and other entertainment such as online games, the increase in internet traffic in Brazil is expected to become more marked.
"The big bandwidth demand on the internet is streaming video," said Sirota.
But this process is expected to be gradual, given the distributed characteristics of the Brazilian network, explained the expert. "No major disruptions are expected. The Brazilian network is well dimensioned, resilient and very robust,” he said.
IX.br's network is formed by 33 exchange points spread across the country. It is the third largest in the world, only behind those in Germany and the Netherlands, with 2,500 players including ISPs, operators, content providers, government and business networks, among others.
São Paulo's IXP trails only Frankfurt and Amsterdam in terms of traffic volume and is the world's largest in terms of the number of people connected.
In Europe, where circulation restrictions are more severe and the internet is more universal, the exchange points have shown an increase in bandwidth consumption of 10% to 20% in countries such as Germany and the UK. In Italy, there have been peaks of 40% growth.
“European networks traditionally exchange much more traffic than the US and even Asia,” said Sirota.
