Real-Time Internet Traffic Doubles

Real-time entertainment has almost doubled its share of total Internet traffic from 2008 to 2009, while gaming has increased its share by more than 50 percent, says Sandvine. Real-time entertainment traffic (streaming audio and video, peer-casting, place-shifting, Flash video) now accounts for 26.6 percent of total traffic in 2009, up from 12.6 percent in 2008, according to a new analysis by Sandvine.

As the percentage of real-time video and voice traffic continues to grow, latency issues will become more visible to end users, and will prompt new efforts by Internet access providers to provide better control of quality issues not related directly to bandwidth.

One reason is that video downloads, for example, are declining in favor of real-time streaming. Downloaded content is less susceptible to latency and jitter impairments.

Traffic to and from gaming consoles increased by more than 50 percent per subscriber as well, demonstrating not only the popularity of online gaming, but also the growing use of game consoles as sources of “traditional” entertainment such as movies and TV shows, says Sandvine.

Gaming, especially fast-paced action games, likewise are susceptible to experience impairment caused by latency and jitter.

.The growth of real-time entertainment consumption also is leading to a decline of peer-to-peer traffic. At a global level, P2P file-sharing declined by 25 percent as a share of total traffic, to account for just over 20 percent of total bytes, says Sandvine.

The changes have key implications for ISPs and end users. One way to protect real-time service performance for applications such as voice, video, videoconferencing and gaming is to take extra measures to protect latency performance for such real-time applications. And that is where clumsy new network neutrality rules might be a problem.

Whatever else might be said, user experience can be optimized at times of peak congestion by prioritizing delivery of real-time packets, compared to other types of traffic that are more robust in the face of packet delay. File downloads, email and Web surfing are examples of activities that are robust in the face of congestion.

So it matters greatly whether ISPs can condition end user traffic--especially with user consent--to maintain top priority for streaming video, voice or other real-time applications when networks are congested. Enterprises do this all the time. It would be a shame if consumers were denied the choice to benefit as well.