The AMS-IX Internet Exchange in Amsterdam has reached a new record-breaking peak traffic of over 9 Terabits per second on their peering platform. 9Tbp/s would correspond to the simultaneous streaming of 1,800,000 HD (1080p) videos.
Internet usage skyrocketed last year due to the measures of governments to contain the pandemic. People all over the world were forced to stay indoors and work from home, which greatly stimulated the use of games, streaming and other Internet services, according to AMS-IX.
In 2020, the spread of the virus spiked two times (the first in March and the second as of halfway October). Both times, governments responded with containment and lockdown measures and this was clearly visible on the peering platform in Amsterdam. The COVID-19 pandemic has come in two waves. During both waves, AMS-IX saw traffic increase roughly 20%. The total Internet data volume being exchanged in Amsterdam rose to 22,77 Exabyte in 2020. It’s 35% more than in 2019. At the same time, mobile roaming traffic on the GRX declined, says AMS-IX.
885+ Networks Connected
By the end of 2020, the AMS-IX peering platform had 885+ networks connected at their Amsterdam platform. 21% of these networks come from the Netherlands, 49% from Europe (excluding the Netherlands) and 30% from outside Europe. Many of their customers upgraded their port capacity to cope with the sudden increase of Internet traffic. The number of active 100GE ports rose to 282, up 9% from 2019. The total capacity rose from 34,6Tbp/s of port capacity to 42,1Tbp/s.
“2020 was an unusual year. We saw conditions that matched the end of the 90s, with record-breaking peaks and a 35% growth of total Internet data volume,” said Peter van Burgel, CEO of AMS-IX. “We are aware of the critical role that our exchanges play in the functioning of the Internet and feel honored that we are able to facilitate all the Internet services that make working from home and communicating with the outside world possible.”
AMS-IX’s Internet exchanges in other parts of the world saw a surge in Internet traffic as well. AMS-IX currently runs six independent Internet exchanges under its own brand (Amsterdam, Chicago, Bay Area, Caribbean, Mumbai and Hong Kong) and one as powered by AMS-IX in Manama (Bahrein). All Internet exchanges saw record-breaking traffic peaks, according to AMS-IX.
Particularly in Hong Kong where the peak traffic reached 77,85 Gigabit per second in 2020 (in 2019 this was 53,43 Gbp/s). In Mumbai, the Internet exchange went up from a peak traffic of 60,77 Gbps in 2019 to 77,72 Gbps in 2020. MN-IX (powered by AMS-IX), which is now operational for 1,5 years noted a traffic peak of over 200 Gbps
