Photo taken on Feb. 19, 2020 shows the exhibition area of Bosch ConnectedWorld 2020, the annual conference on the internet of things (IoT) held by German engineering and technology company Bosch in Berlin, Germany. (Xinhua/Yan Feng)
Global data traffic stabilized at a high level in 2021 after the outbreak of the pandemic and the record-breaking year in 2020, and continues to grow steadily.
BERLIN, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- Data traffic at the Frankfurt-based global DE-CIX Internet Exchanges surged in 2021, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on societies and economies.
The total data traffic via the DE-CIX, one of the world's largest internet exchanges, exceeded 38 exabytes (38 billion gigabytes) in 2021, an increase of 20 percent year-on-year, the company said on Friday.
"Overall, global data traffic stabilized at a high level in 2021 after the outbreak of the pandemic and the record-breaking year in 2020, and continues to grow steadily," said Christoph Dietzel, global head of products and research at DE-CIX.
Liu Yunjie, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, speaks during the World Internet Conference -- Internet Development Forum in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang Province, Nov. 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
Data throughput of video conferences via the internet exchange in Frankfurt was high in the first months of 2021 but declined in the summer, when the COVID-19 lockdowns and contact restrictions ended, according to DE-CIX.
"Concepts, such as work-from-home with video conferencing and home entertainment with video streaming and gaming, have become established in everyday life," Dietzel explained. "This growth will only continue."
For video streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney Plus or Amazon Prime Video, "the distribution was similar but with smaller seasonal differences," DE-CIX noted.
The situation was different for gaming data traffic, which recorded peak values in the last months of 2021.
The computer screen shows a student of the national academy of dance attending modern dance class via video link in Rome, Italy, Nov. 16, 2021. (Xinhua/Jin Mamengni)■
