DE-CIX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange (IX) operator, today announced a new peak traffic record of more than 1 Terabit per second (Tbit/s) on its Dallas-based multi-service interconnection platform. The new peak of 1.01 Tbit/s was reached at 8:10 PM Central Standard Time (CST) coinciding with the NFL playoffs. This significant milestone, equivalent to the simultaneous streaming of over 330,000 HD videos per second, underscores the region’s rapid digital growth and its increasing reliance on robust internet infrastructure. Overall peak traffic at DE-CIX Dallas has risen by 61% since the beginning of 2023, and by as much as 194% since early 2022.
DE-CIX Dallas is now the fifth DE-CIX exchange globally to cross 1 Terabit of peak traffic, following in the footsteps of DE-CIX Frankfurt, DE-CIX New York, DE-CIX Madrid, and DE-CIX Mumbai. The new peak is the surest sign yet of the rapid economic growth of the state of Texas and the potential of its digital economy.
Driving Forces Behind the Surge
The recent surge in traffic can be explained by two different growth trends. Consumer trends like recent increases in the live-streaming of sports events are having an impact on the volume of data traffic in the region on particular days, leading to higher peak traffic. Almost half of viewers in the US watch sport events online rather than on traditional broadcast networks. For example, online live streaming of Thursday Night Football has increased by 15% this season over last year.
Driving the second trend is the relocation of businesses to the Dallas area, increased traffic from Latin America, particularly Mexico, and a general move to cloud-based operations for Dallas businesses since the pandemic is also driving growth in data traffic in the long term. The area’s population density and low latency links to other Texas cities like Houston, Austin, and San Antonio are also contributing to increased data traffic. Texas is also booming as an economy; after California, Texas is the second-largest state in the US in terms of GDP and now rivals entire countries as one of the top ten economies in the world.
Strategic Neutrality and Collaborative Growth
“Neutrality and an open access model have been the bedrock of our success, not just in Dallas but across our global footprint,” comments Ed d’Agostino, Vice President of DE-CIX North America. “Our unwavering commitment to these principles ensures that we provide an equitable platform for all players in the digital ecosystem. By forging strategic partnerships with data centers and transport network operators, we’re not only expanding the reach of our platform but also ensuring that regional networks can connect seamlessly. This collaborative approach has been instrumental in driving the rapid growth and resilience of our IX in the region, reflecting the dynamic and interconnected world we live in today.”
DE-CIX Dallas: A Connectivity Hub in the Southwest
DE-CIX Dallas is the largest carrier and data center neutral IX serving the Southwest, and now ranks among the top 15 largest IXs in the United States, connecting close to 150 networks. These include carriers, ISPs, content providers, cloud service providers, enterprises and other networks, optimizing content delivery at the edge. The interconnection platform, accessible from over 15 different data centers and colocation facilities, offers direct access to leading cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, including the Microsoft Azure Peering Service (MAPS).
DE-CIX’s neutral approach of turning individual data centers into a more unified and accessible ‘mall’ of connectivity is gaining interest in various regions. Beyond local connectivity, the platform extends its reach to major North American cities like New York, Chicago, Richmond, Phoenix, and – as of 2024 – Mexico City and Queretaro, as well as connecting thousands of global networks across Europe and the Middle East.
Recent partnerships, such as the one with Connected Nation Internet Exchange Points (CNIXP), further emphasize DE-CIX’s commitment to enhancing connectivity for unserved and underserved cities in the US.
Background information: What does a data throughput of 1 Terabit per Second mean?
- A terabit per second, Tbit/s or Tbps, is a dimension for the transmission speed of data.
- 1 terabit per second corresponds to the simultaneous transmission of approximately 330 thousand (330,000) videos in HD quality, or a data volume of approximately 220 million (220,000,000) written pages (12 point, US Letter format) – a stack more than 22 kilometers high.
- 1 Terabit per second is 10³ Gbit/s, 106 Mbit/s, 109 kbit/s or 1012 bit/s, i.e. around 1,000,000,000,000 bits per second.
- The next lower data rates are measured in gigabits per second (Gbit/s) and megabits per second (Mbit/s).
