New traffic peaks and 25% increase of data volume on AMS-IX Caribbean

AMS-IX Caribbean is the largest interconnection hub for internet traffic in the Dutch Caribbean. More than 50% of all the internet traffic for Curaçao and Bonaire flows via the AMS-IX Caribbean digital gateway. The COVID-19 measures are clearly visible in the traffic patterns on AMS-IX Caribbean. Before the crisis, the highest traffic peak ever measured on the platform was 22,7 Gbps.

However, between the 15th of March and today, AMS-IX Caribbean hit new all-time peak traffic records eight times in a row. In the week of the 15th
of March, the government of Curaçao took its first containment measures, like closing schools, banning gatherings and suspending international flights.

The highest measured traffic peak on the platform is now 27,78 Gbps. This traffic corresponds to the simultaneous transmission of 5560 HD Netflix streams (taken that one Netflix takes 5 Mbps)

Peak traffic on the AMS-IX Caribbean platform is reached during evening hours, when people are watching television, play online games or make use of other internet services. The most notable uptake of the traffic due to the COVID measures is during the day. This is clearly visible when we look at the total volume of data that is exchanged on the platform on a daily basis (as shown in the graphs).

In the last weeks of February and the first weeks of March, the total volume of traffic exchanged on a daily basis was between 130 and 140 Terabytes. After the 16thof March however, internet traffic exchanged on the platform grew to between 160 and 175 Terabytes, an uptake of about 25%. The uptake is especially visible on Sundays, the day the lockdown measures are most severe, reaching over 180 Terabytes.

180 Terabytes is an astronomical amount of data. Taken that one two-hour HD film is 4,5 GByte, 180 Terbytes corresponds to 40.000 hours of HD films. 180 Terabytes also corresponds to more than 32 million copies of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (taken that one copy would be 5.5MB).