An upsurge of technological change and a rising tide of new forms of data are working a deep transformation of the Internet’s capabilities and uses. In this third phase of Net evolution, network architectures and commercial business plans reflect the dominance of rich video and media traffic.

From YouTube, IPTV, and high-definition images, to “cloud computing” and ubiquitous mobile cameras—to 3D games, virtual worlds, and photorealistic telepresence—the new wave is swelling into an exaflood of Internet and IP traffic.

An exabyte is 10 to the 18th, and according to the Discovery Institute, they estimate that by 2015, U.S. domestic IP traffic could reach an annual total of one zettabyte or one million million billion bytes. AT&T also recently published some statistics on their network which has shown a 145% increase in consumer broadband traffic. They have similar predictions on the Exaflood as the Discovery Institute.

If these predictions come true, then the capability of Australian's proposed FTTN/ADSL2+ based Broadband Network will not meet consumer demand even before the deployment is complete. FTTH is the only option to protect the $8b investment in infrastructure and ensure we can utilise the Internet to its full potential.

What more information on the Exaflood, view this youtube video.