Global IP traffic is on pace to grow nearly threefold over the next five years to reach 1.6 zettabytes by 2018, according to Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index.
The projected annual IP traffic for 2018 will exceed all IP traffic that has been generated globally from 1984 to last year, the company estimates.
APAC will generate the largest share of IP traffic by 2018 – 47.6 exabytes per month, or 36% of the global total. But the US (37 exabytes per month) will be well ahead of China (18 exabytes per month) as the top traffic-generating country.
Video is fuelling the traffic explosion – IP video already accounted for 66% of traffic in 2013, and Cisco expect this to increase to 79% by 2018.
HD video will meanwhile grow to account for 52% of traffic by this time, from 36% in 2013, while Ultra HD video will account for 11% of traffic, from a mere 0.1% last year.
Mobile and other portable non-PC devices are meanwhile expected to generate the majority (57%) of traffic by 2018, up from 33% in 2013. PC-originated traffic will have a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 10%, compared to 74% for tablets and 64% for smartphones.
Metro traffic surpassed long-haul traffic in 2013, and is expected to grow nearly twice as fast as long-haul traffic from 2013-2018.
The global fixed average connection speed is also set to grow 2.6 fold over this period to reach 42 Mbps by 2018.
In terms of devices and connections, Cisco predicts there will be nearly 21 billion global network connections by 2018. This would translate to 2.7 networked devices per capita. In 2013, there were around 12.4 billion connections or 1.7 per capita.