A new report by Cisco predicts that more traffic will flow across the Internet in the next five years than in the history of the global interconnected network.

The company’s new Visual Networking Index (VNI) predicts that by 2022, more IP traffic will cross global networks than in all prior “Internet years” combined up to the end of 2016.

“In other words, more traffic will be created in 2022 than in the 32 years since the Internet started,” Cisco said.

Where will that traffic come from? “All of us, our machines and the way we use the Internet,” it said. “By 2022, 60% of the global population will be Internet users. More than 28 billion devices and connections will be online. And video will make up 82% of all IP traffic.”

Since Cisco first started the VNI forecast in 2005, Internet traffic has increased 56-fold — a 36% compound annual growth rate.

Key finding of the VNI report are:

Global IP traffic will more than triple between 2017 and 2022. It will reach 396 exabytes per month by 2022, up from 122EB/month in 2017. That’s 4.8 zettabytes of traffic per year by 2022;
By 2022, the busiest hour of Internet traffic will be six times more active than the average. Busy-hour Internet traffic will grow nearly five-fold (37% compound annual growth) from 2017 to 2022, reaching 7.2 petabytes per second by 2022;
There will be 4.8 billion Internet users by 2022, up from 3.4 billion in 2017;
Global networked devices and connections will reach 28.5 billion;
By 2022, there will be 28.5 billion fixed and mobile personal devices and connections, up from 18 billion in 2017 — or 3.6 networked devices/connections per person, from 2.4 per person;
More than half of all devices and connections will be machine-to-machine by 2022, up from 34% in 2017. That’s 14.6 billion connections from smart speakers, fixtures, devices and everything else, up from 6.1 billion;
Global broadband, Wi-Fi and mobile speeds will double or more. Average global fixed broadband speeds will nearly double from 39Mbit/s to 75.4Mbit/s; Average global Wi-Fi connection speeds will more than double from 24.4Mbit/s to 54Mbit/s. Average global mobile connection speeds will more than triple from 8.7Mbit/s to 28.5Mbit/s;
Video, gaming and multimedia will make up more than 85% of all traffic. Gaming traffic is expected to grow nine-fold from 2017 to 2022. It will represent 4% of overall IP traffic in 2022;
Virtual and augmented reality traffic will skyrocket as more consumers and businesses use the technologies. By 2022, virtual and augmented reality traffic will reach 4EB /month, up from 0.3EB/month in 2017. — (c) 2018 NewsCentral Media