On the shoulders of giants: recent changes in Internet traffic

This post analyzes the impact of global events, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic, on internet traffic patterns. It details observed surges in traffic towards video conferencing, streaming, and news services, alongside a decrease in traffic from business and university networks. The post presents data visualizations showing traffic shifts in various countries (US, Netherlands, France, Italy, Hong Kong) and at major Internet Exchange Points (AMS-IX, LINX, DE-CIX, MXP-IX, HKIX). It quantifies the observed traffic increases, ranging from 10% to 40% depending on the region and government actions, and emphasizes the inherent robustness of the internet infrastructure in handling such dynamic load changes.