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How Internet Service Providers Avoid Global Blackout During Outbreaks



A few weeks ago, news and articles began to appear on the network that spoke about the problems of the global network infrastructure in connection with the epidemic. It all started back in January this year, when China introduced tough measures against an impending epidemic. In those regions of the country whose residents were sent home, the volume of Internet traffic has sharply increased, both via regular and mobile channels.

As a result, the data transfer rate dropped - in the same Hubei province with which it all started, the throughput of mobile communication channels decreased by 50%.

China, then Europe, then the whole world


China managed to cope with the epidemic, but the virus came to Italy, Germany, Spain and other European countries. Then it began to spread actively in the United States. And the problem, which was originally noticed in China, gradually became global - the world was faced with an increase in Internet traffic.

According to Ookla (this company is behind SpeedTest services), in the same USA, the data transfer rate at the end of March fell by 4.9%. According to figures presented by Broadband Now, the worst picture is in San Jose, California, where this figure was 38% and in New York - 24%.

Of course, the problems were not only in the USA - in the same Italy about three weeks ago, the situation with the network load turned out to be so complicated that the providers started talking about the possibility of a nationwide blackout.

The causes of the problem lie on the surface - since hundreds of millions of people were locked up in their homes, they began to use affordable ways to receive and transmit information, entertainment, study, work. And this is in most cases the Internet.

YouTube, Netflix, Facebook marked the peak of user activity - the number of active users and the information they generate reached record levels. The Internet business of these and some other companies was the winner, because online companies received increased income.

AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson said that the number of calls over the wireless network has doubled, and data transmission over the mobile network is up 40%. He was one of the first to say that if traffic continues to grow, this will be a known problem not only for different services, but also for entire communication channels.

The Spanish telecom operator Telefonica said that in the first few weeks after the introduction of quarantine, the volume of traffic passing through the company’s networks exceeded the estimated limit for the whole of 2020.

In Russia, the growth of Internet traffic in the first days after the introduction of quarantine increased by 10-30%. According to MTS, for example, traffic in instant messengers and social networks has quadrupled, game traffic has doubled, video traffic is about half. Beeline reported a 15% increase in call volume and about a five percent increase in mobile Internet traffic. Well, Megafon noted an increase in daily network traffic up to 60%.

But regulators from different countries sounded the alarm - the level of data transfer has grown so much that it has become a threat to a national or even global blackout.

Taken measures


The representative of the European Commission Thierry Breton said that all this has no precedents, this has not happened before and there is no template action plan. Therefore, governments of different countries need to be on the lookout to prevent a serious problem with disconnecting certain segments of the global network.

Regulators in the United States have said roughly the same thing. But video services, streaming sites, one after another, began to act independently. So, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook and others began to reduce the video quality limit, limiting the default playback values.

“We work with governments and providers around the world to reduce the load on the network,” YouTube said .

Streaming video requires much more Internet bandwidth than listening to music, messaging, using map services, etc.

In early April, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media asked providers and Internet companies of the Russian Federation to optimize Runet content in order to limit the quality of online video . “The load on the network due to the massive transition of subscribers to remote methods of work and training, as well as the use of streaming services, has a tendency to increase,” the letter says.

The corresponding appeal was received by Rutube, Vimeo, Dvach, Yandex (including Yandex.Zen), Rambler Group, Mail.ru Group (including VKontakte and Odnoklassniki), Mamba, Megaphone". Almost all of these companies are in the register of information dissemination organizers of Roskomnadzor.

Catastrophe did not happen


Fortunately, telecommunications companies reacted on time, and there were no large-scale blackouts. In addition to the measures outlined above, other measures were taken. For example, Verizon, Cox and AT&T built additional base stations, increased the number of fiber optic backbones, and optimized existing networks.

Orange managed to double the throughput of underwater routes. In Italy, where Internet traffic grew by 90%, Telecom Italia held a number of events to upgrade the network and was also able to avoid major problems. The operator has increased its network capacity by 50%.

Similar actions were carried out by operators of India, Australia, Latin America. They did not sit idly by in Russia.

Network equipment manufacturers deliver new, effective solutions. For example, Zyxelrecently introduced SD-WAN OS , which helps to increase the quality and speed of communication without increasing the load on the channels. In addition, the new version of the OS has a high availability option, a CLI command line, and an automatic VLAN configuration feature.

What's next?


According to experts, an increased level of network operation may become the new standard for the next few months. After the epidemic subsides, the number of Internet users will not particularly decrease. Many companies will prefer to leave the remote mode for their employees - partially or completely, Internet users will get used to distance learning, streaming and other Internet services.

But the operators and regulators managed to cope with the crisis, so in the near future you can not wait for a global blackout.

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