2026-10-11T13:39:33Z https://drops.dagstuhl.de/oai

oai:drops-oai.dagstuhl.de:25610 2026-06-23T10:10:20Z ddc:004 open_access

Five Blind Men and the Internet: Towards an Understanding of Internet Traffic Kirci, Ege Cem Mishra, Ayush Vanbever, Laurent Internet Exchange Point (IXP) traffic measurement longitudinal study traffic growth diurnal patterns PeeringDB global-scale detection network anomalies Our current view of traffic on the Internet - the world’s largest and most pervasive network - comes from a variety of perspectives, each with its own blind spots and biases. In this paper, we make the case for using publicly available Internet exchange point (IXP) statistics as a complementary vantage point. While IXP data has its own limitations, it is fine-grained, accessible, and independently verifiable - offering a distinct perspective on Internet usage patterns. We present results from a two-year study (2023-2024) of 472 IXPs worldwide, capturing approximately 300 Tbps of peak daily aggregate traffic by late 2024. Over this period, aggregate IXP traffic increased by 49.2% (24.5% annualized), with regionally distinct diurnal patterns and event-driven anomalies. These results provide an accessible framework for researchers and operators to study the Internet’s evolving ecosystem from an IXP-based perspective, and lay the groundwork for systematic, global-scale detection of network anomalies and outages. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik Ege Cem Kirci and Ayush Mishra and Laurent Vanbever 2026 Is Part Of OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026) InProceedings Text doc-type:ResearchArticle publishedVersion application/pdf doi:10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.25 urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-256106 https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.25 eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode