Brussels, 23 January 2025 – Internet traffic on BNIX regularly exceeded the 500 gigabits per second mark last year. Peaks as large as that had not been seen since the coronavirus pandemic, when traffic sometimes even exceeded 600 Gbit/s. On Monday 4 November, a total of 520 Gbit/s passed through BNIX, as much as 15 percent higher than the peak of 462 Gbit/s recorded in 2023. Another striking fact is that traffic was higher than normal during the busy summer of sport. What is more, 2024 was characterised by high traffic plateaus in the morning and afternoon during the working week, which is a trend that first arose during the period of the coronavirus pandemic and has continued in the years since then.
After traffic levels on BNIX smashed all records during the coronavirus crisis, the Belgian internet node experienced a return to normal in 2022 and 2023. By 2024, however, it was noticeable that peaks in internet traffic in particular were increasing substantially. Levels in excess of 500 Gbit/s are no longer an exception at all: in addition to recording 520 Gbit/s on 4 November, 515 Gbit/s per second passed through at the busiest time on 3 September and 10 December last year.
According to Stefan Gulinck, who, as Senior Network Architect at Belnet, is jointly responsible for BNIX, the timing of those peaks cannot fully be explained. “After all, this is often due to a combination of a multitude of small factors. Sometimes, the link to a particular event is obvious. For example, we also noticed a spike at the start of the new school year. Another event also has a clear explanation: the classic dip in BNIX traffic during the summer did not occur in 2024. This is almost certainly due to the ‘mother of all sports summers’, which included the European Championship football and the Olympics, and the fact that nowadays, more and more people watch these events via streaming than via conventional television.”
Technological trends
Nevertheless, BNIX did in fact observe a slight decline of 10 percent in average traffic on the platform in 2024. However, it cannot be concluded from this that overall internet traffic in Belgium has decreased. One reason for the decline is that a number of BNIX participants have set up ‘direct peerings’. That means some of the traffic they normally exchange via BNIX is now being exchanged between themselves by means of direct connections. BNIX also welcomed eight new participants last year, including the (Romanian) parent company of the new operator Digi, thereby bringing the total to 76. The top 10 BNIX participants in terms of traffic volume include Proximus, VOO, Microsoft, Orange and Akamai.
In addition, BNIX also processed nine upgrade requests. “What is striking about this and is perhaps due to the sharply increasing spikes, is that the small gateways – the entryways to the BNIX platform – are becoming less and less popular. The trend toward 100G physical ports continues unabated and they are gradually becoming the norm,” concluded Stefan.
2025 will be a milestone year
This year will be a very special year for BNIX. Not only will Belnet complete the roll-out of the brand new BNIX platform, but BNIX will also be celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025. To mark that occasion, BNIX will also be hosting the Euro-IX Forum (from 1 to 3 June in Antwerp), at which numerous internet nodes from around Europe will share expertise and best practices.