Nokia Deepfield's latest report finds that as cities and states are starting to re-open, network traffic has started to stabilize. In its June 4, update, Nokia Deepfield found that peak network traffic has normalized at 25% to 30% above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.
Network traffic peak levels exceeded their pre-pandemic levels by 30% or more during the weekend of March 22, but more recently stabilized in the range of 20% to 30% above the levels recorded in the first week of February.
When looking at the aggregate traffic volumes, Nokia Deepfield found the volumes have remained above 25% since the lockdowns or shelter-in-place policies started. "Unlike peak traffic, there is no downward trend here," according to Nokia Deepfield's research. The stabilization indicated prolonged network use throughout the day, both during the weekdays and weekends.
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Nokia Deepfield noted that many Tier 1 service providers said their quarterly or yearly capacity upgrades occurred over the course of a few weeks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Nokia Deepfield saw a significant increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack volumes during March. That trend continued throughout April and May. The aggregate volume of DDoS traffic is now 40% to 50% above the pre-pandemic levels from February, according to a blog by Craig Labovitz, chief technology officer for Nokia Deepfield.
Over the past eight weeks, DDoS attacks were on the rise due to the increased abuse of North American and Europe-based amplifiers, according to Nokia Deepfield. In particular, outbound DDoS traffic has significantly increased, which Nokia Deepfield said targets U.S.-based enterprise and IoT hosts acting as reflectors and amplifiers
In 2011, Deepfield was launched as a startup company that analyzed big data from the cloud to help content providers and carriers make more informed network decisions. In 2016, Deepfield became a part of Nokia.
Nokia Deepfield is a specialist in real-time analytics for IP network performance management and security. With Deepfield Cloud, service provider engineers have visibility into application demand and fluctuating traffic patterns by supporting advanced IP network engineering and assurance uses with automation.