Merit's Network Information Center host computer contains a wide array of information about the Internet and NSFNET
NSFNET statistics are reported, as available, at monthly intervals. The statistics include only that portion of the ANSNet backbone that receives direct NSFNET sponsorship. The primary tools used to collect the statistics are the SNMP and other software modeled on NNStat.
The statistics herewith available are:
1. History of NSFNET Growth by Networks: Growth as reflected in the number of domestic and foreign networks having announcement to the NSFNET infrastructures.
2. NSFNET Byte Traffic History: Growth in traffic on the NSFNET backbone service as measured in bytes. Byte traffic measurements are available beginning March 1991.
3. NSFNET Packet Traffic History: Growth in traffic on the NSFNET backbone service as measured in packets.
4. NSFNET Networks by Country: Distribution, by country, of networks announced to the NSFNET backbone service.
5. NSFNET Networks by US State: Distribution, by state, of U.S. networks announced to the NSFNET backbone service.
6. Hosts: Growth as reflected in the number of computers and domain names on the Internet as reported in Mark Lottor's Internet Domain Survey.
Notes about the statistics collection
The primary tools for data collection are SNMP and NNStat/ARTS. SNMP-based reports are "bytes" and "packets." NNStat/ARTS-based reports is "country."
The SNMP and NNStat/ARTS measuring tools reside at somewhat different locations at the backbone nodes and use differing techniques to collect data. As such, they do not measure quite the same packet flow. Also, NNStat/ARTS data collection switched to a sampling method in September, 1991, as management of the sheer volume of data had become untenable.
Late in 1991, NSFNET began the migration from a T1 to a T3 Backbone Service, with T1 traffic counts decreasing accordingly. By June, 1992, most of the traffic had transitioned to the T3 Backbone Service. The T1 country report was discontinued at that time, since the remaining T1 traffic could no longer be considered representative of the NSFNET Backbone Service as a whole. Full statistics reporting was resumed in November, 1992, when ARTS, the completely redesigned and implemented NNStat replacement, was put into production.
In the early days of NSFNET, every node on the backbone was an NSFNET node. When the T3 technology was implemented in 1992, NSFNET was moved to a larger network that had some nodes that did not belong to NSFNET. At this point, the "populations" being measured by the varying collection methods changed dramatically. The SNMP-based reports now report only the traffic that enters the NSFNET Backbone Service at an NSFNET sponsored node. The ARTS country report records the subset of traffic that either comes from or is destined to NSFNET sponsored networks, regardless of where the packets enter the T3 backbone. Partly for consistency reasons, Merit/NSFNET continues to interpret the SNMP-based packet reports as the truest measure of growth of the NSFNET Backbone Service.
The traffic counts started to decrease during December 1994, when networks began to migrate to the new NSF network architecture. In the new architecture, traffic is exchanged at interconnection points called NAPs (Network Access Points.) On April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service was successfully transitioned to the new network architecture. Although the reports are inclusive through the end of the NSFNET service, the November 1994 reports are the last to reflect the nature of the NSFNET backbone traffic in its entirety.
1. History of NSFNET Growth by Networks (1 May 1995)
Total Prefix Length Total Date Nets= */8 + */16 + */24 +/Other Non-US ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ------ ------ 88/07 217 1 128 37 0 9 88/08 241 2 133 40 0 9 88/09 292 3 139 45 0 9 88/10 305 5 175 52 0 14 88/11 334 5 195 59 0 33 88/12 346 5 205 64 0 33 89/01 384 6 212 70 0 34 89/02 410 6 234 82 0 35 89/03 467 6 257 90 0 38 89/04 516 6 287 108 0 61 89/05 564 6 321 128 0 95 89/06 603 8 340 143 0 95 89/07 650 9 351 153 0 99 89/08 745 9 408 181 0 137 89/09 809 9 443 198 0 153 89/10 837 9 460 205 0 162 89/11 897 9 492 236 0 191 89/12 927 9 512 245 0 202 90/01 1233 12 758 417 0 250 90/02 1290 12 775 439 0 257 90/03 1356 12 803 466 0 284 90/04 1525 12 852 498 0 322 90/05 1580 12 880 519 0 344 90/06 1639 13 907 549 0 359 90/07 1727 13 985 586 0 436 90/08 1894 13 1059 654 0 468 90/09 1988 13 1101 687 0 496 90/10 2063 13 1146 727 0 542 90/11 2125 13 1174 777 0 583 90/12 2190 13 1201 815 0 621 91/01 2338 13 1266 890 0 693 91/02 2417 13 1315 922 0 721 91/03 2501 13 1362 959 0 762 91/04 2622 14 1410 1029 0 804 91/05 2763 14 1492 1083 0 882 91/06 2982 15 1606 1176 0 989 91/07 3086 15 1663 1232 0 1012 91/08 3258 15 1747 1308 0 1066 91/09 3389 16 1805 1378 0 1128 91/10 3556 16 1864 1485 0 1214 91/11 3751 16 1934 1598 0 1302 91/12 4305 16 2105 1970 0 1450 92/01 4526 16 2199 2107 0 1496 92/02 4740 16 2335 2224 0 1595 92/03 4976 17 2420 2328 0 1697 92/04 5291 18 2523 2533 0 1806 92/05 5515 18 2580 2711 0 1911 92/06 5739 18 2646 2861 0 2002 92/07 6031 19 2741 3052 0 2133 92/08 6385 19 2829 3314 0 2273 92/09 6640 19 2889 3519 0 2336 92/10 7354 20 3043 4037 0 2566 92/11 7854 20 3111 4410 0 2832 92/12 8561 25 3280 5256 0 3195 93/01 9117 25 3340 5752 0 3413 93/02 9604 24 3413 6167 0 3708 93/03 10498 23 3494 6981 0 4103 93/04 11252 23 3567 7662 0 4462 93/05 12349 23 3659 8667 0 4951 93/06 13170 24 3726 9420 0 5461 93/07 14121 26 3818 10277 0 5827 93/08 15160 26 3890 11244 0 6265 93/09 16696 27 3993 12676 0 7071 93/10 17979 27 4080 13872 0 7539 93/11 19664 26 4155 15483 0 8106 93/12 21430 27 4244 17159 0 9042 94/01 23494 28 4349 19117 0 9869 94/02 25706 28 4450 21228 0 10924 94/03 28578 28 4572 23930 48 11966 94/04 30626 29 4722 25509 366 12724 94/05 32370 29 4817 27064 460 13541 94/06 34051 30 4905 28301 815 14362 94/07 36153 30 5010 30100 1013 15362 94/08 38307 30 5089 31870 1318 16323 94/09 39977 30 5178 33258 1511 17073 94/10 41520 30 5246 34537 1707 17708 94/11 42883 29 5327 35572 1955 18103 94/12 44689 30 5418 37088 2153 18779 95/01 46318 30 5485 38565 2238 19637 95/02 48514 30 5558 40328 2598 20900 95/03 50344 30 5633 41717 2964 21782 95/04 50766 30 5742 41790 3204 22296 NOTES: This report is a listing by month of the number of networks configured for announcement on the NSFNET infrastructure. It includes a breakdown by IP class and the number of non-US nets. Network IP addresses have historically been grouped into three classes: A for IPs 1-126, B for 128-191, and C for 192-254. With the advent of CIDR blocks in March 1994, the classes have been re-labelled according to the corresponding prefix length. The "Other" column is used for networks using prefixes other 8, 16, or 24. Prior to December 1992, the sum of the values in the Prefix Length columns will not usually add to the total. The difference represents deleted networks for which we no longer have enough information to determine their class. Counts exclude networks that are configured for the ANSNet backbone but are not routed by NSFNET.
2. NSFNET Byte Traffic History (in billions of bytes)
1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Jan 2256 4782 8609 13196 Feb 2371 5015 9303 9790 Mar 1268 2761 6053 11226 11218 Apr 1402 2848 6219 11587 5316 May 1442 3061 5845 12187 Jun 1244 3274 6195 12466 Jul 1594 3373 6389 12764 Aug 1484 3200 6631 13385 Sep 1769 3315 7022 14990 Oct 1879 3903 8468 17232 Nov 1959 4651 8483 17781 Dec 1956 4372 8283 16313 NOTE: March 1991, byte traffic measurements are now available. March 1991, NSFNET traffic is now measured as the total packets for T1 and T3 networks. May 1992, is an estimated value; actual value is unavailable. December 1992, all traffic is on the T3 network; the T1 has been retired. December 1994, numbers begin decreasing as traffic migrates to the new NSF architecture, for which no comparable statistics are available. April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service successfully transitions to the new NAP architecture. The end of the NSFNET project marks the end of collection of this data.
3. NSFNET Packet Traffic History (in millions of packets)
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Jan 85 468 2466 5868 12153 24016 45283 60399 Feb 83 573 2551 6030 13457 26040 48359 43629 Mar 106 746 2841 7135 14906 30371 56189 48122 Apr 114 874 3075 7727 15596 31895 58015 22044 May 116 965 3153 8098 15669 29704 60205 Jun 93 1068 3273 7248 15741 31443 60587 Jul 152 1153 3426 8739 17063 32889 60742 Aug 194 1449 3739 8599 16527 33222 64937 Sep 304 1592 4145 9718 18740 36567 72851 Oct 357 1952 5246 11257 22498 42882 83413 Nov 376 2099 4857 11200 23826 44471 86372 Dec 396 2087 4813 10863 22009 45651 75292 NOTES: July 1988, NSFNET begins operation under Merit's management. March 1991, NSFNET traffic is now measured as the total packets for T1 and T3 networks. May 1992, is an estimated value; actual value is unavailable. December 1992, all traffic is on the T3 network; the T1 has been retired. December 1994, numbers begin decreasing as traffic migrates to the new NSF architecture, for which no comparable statistics are available. April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service successfully transitions to the new NAP architecture. The end of the NSFNET project marks the end of collection of this data.
4. NSFNET Networks by Country (01 May 1995)
Total Prefix Length Initial
Code Country Nets= */8 + */16 + */24 /Other Connection
---- ------- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----------
DZ Algeria 3 0 0 3 0 04/94
AR Argentina 27 0 7 18 2 10/90
AM Armenia 3 0 0 3 0 06/94
AU Australia 1875 0 150 1703 22 05/89
AT Austria 408 0 33 353 22 06/90
BY Belarus 1 0 0 1 0 02/95
BE Belgium 138 0 20 104 14 05/90
BM Bermuda 20 0 0 17 3 03/94
BR Brazil 165 0 24 137 4 06/90
BG Bulgaria 9 0 2 7 0 04/93
BF Burkina Faso 2 0 0 2 0 10/94
CM Cameroon 1 0 0 1 0 12/92
CA Canada 4795 2 271 4453 69 07/88 *
CL Chile 102 0 13 81 8 04/90
CN China 8 0 4 2 2 04/94
CO Colombia 5 0 2 2 1 04/94
CR Costa Rica 6 0 1 5 0 01/93
HR Croatia 31 0 1 30 0 11/91
CY Cyprus 25 0 0 20 5 12/92
CZ Czech Republic 459 0 16 357 86 11/91
DK Denmark 48 0 9 35 4 11/88
DO Dominican Repub 1 0 0 0 1 04/95
EC Ecuador 85 0 1 84 0 07/92
EG Egypt 7 0 1 6 0 11/93
EE Estonia 49 0 1 48 0 07/92
FJ Fiji 1 0 1 0 0 06/93
FI Finland 643 0 35 575 33 11/88
FR France 2003 0 111 1755 137 07/88 *
PF French Polynesi 1 0 0 1 0 10/94
DE Germany 1750 1 259 1376 114 09/89
GH Ghana 1 0 0 1 0 05/93
GR Greece 105 0 9 74 22 07/90
GU Guam 5 0 0 4 1 10/93
HK Hong Kong 95 0 13 70 12 09/91
HU Hungary 164 0 6 156 2 11/91
IS Iceland 31 0 2 29 0 11/88
IN India 13 0 4 9 0 11/90
ID Indonesia 46 0 10 34 2 07/93
IE Ireland 168 0 14 150 4 07/90
IL Israel 217 0 21 194 2 08/89
IT Italy 506 0 63 380 63 08/89
JM Jamaica 16 0 0 14 2 05/94
JP Japan 1847 0 331 1294 222 08/89
KZ Kazakhstan 2 0 0 2 0 11/93
KE Kenya 1 0 0 1 0 11/93
KR Korea, South 476 0 44 379 53 04/90
KW Kuwait 8 0 3 5 0 12/92
LV Latvia 22 0 1 19 2 11/92
LB Lebanon 1 0 0 0 1 06/94
LI Liechtenstein 3 0 0 2 1 06/93
LT Lithuania 1 0 0 0 1 04/94
LU Luxembourg 59 0 6 49 4 04/92
MO Macau 1 0 1 0 0 04/94
MY Malaysia 6 0 3 3 0 11/92
MX Mexico 126 0 46 76 4 02/89
MA Morocco 1 0 0 1 0 10/94
MZ Mozambique 6 0 0 3 3 03/95
NL Netherlands 406 0 73 303 30 01/89
NC New Caledonia 1 0 0 1 0 10/94
NZ New Zealand 356 0 36 315 5 04/89
NI Nicaragua 1 0 1 0 0 02/94
NE Niger 1 0 0 1 0 10/94
NO Norway 214 1 42 166 5 11/88
PA Panama 1 0 1 0 0 06/94
PE Peru 44 0 1 41 2 11/93
PH Philippines 46 0 1 43 2 04/94
PL Poland 131 0 14 115 2 11/91
PT Portugal 92 0 5 79 8 10/91
PR Puerto Rico 9 0 3 4 2 10/89
RO Romania 26 0 1 24 1 04/93
RU Russian Federat 405 0 7 384 14 06/93
SN Senegal 11 0 0 11 0 10/94
SG Singapore 107 0 8 98 1 05/91
SK Slovakia 69 0 5 63 1 03/92
SI Slovenia 46 0 5 40 1 02/92
ZA South Africa 419 0 45 312 62 12/91
ES Spain 257 0 27 224 6 07/90
SZ Swaziland 1 0 0 1 0 05/94
SE Sweden 415 0 40 297 78 11/88
CH Switzerland 324 0 60 229 35 03/90
TW Taiwan 575 0 15 548 12 12/91
TH Thailand 107 0 5 99 3 07/92
TN Tunisia 19 0 0 19 0 05/91
TR Turkey 97 0 5 83 9 01/93
UA Ukraine 60 0 0 55 5 08/93
AE United Arab Emi 3 0 0 3 0 11/93
GB United Kingdom 1436 0 183 1128 125 04/89
US United States 28470 26 3612 22968 1864 07/88 *
UY Uruguay 1 0 1 0 0 04/94
UZ Uzbekistan 1 0 0 1 0 12/94
VE Venezuela 11 0 6 4 1 02/92
VN Vietnam 1 0 0 0 1 04/95
VI Virgin Islands, 4 0 1 3 1 03/93
---- ------- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
93 Total 50766 30 5742 41790 3204
* Merit began managing the NSFNET backbone in July, 1988.
5. NSFNET Networks by US State (01 May 1995)
Code US State # Nets
---- ----------------- ------
AL Alabama 260
AK Alaska 26
AZ Arizona 186
AR Arkansas 70
CA California 4832
CO Colorado 696
CT Connecticut 463
DE Delaware 23
FL Florida 770
GA Georgia 445
HI Hawaii 127
ID Idaho 56
IL Illinois 577
IN Indiana 347
IA Iowa 147
KS Kansas 70
KY Kentucky 82
LA Louisiana 198
ME Maine 103
MD Maryland 1178
MA Massachusetts 2005
MI Michigan 540
MN Minnesota 867
MS Mississippi 109
MO Missouri 303
MT Montana 37
NE Nebraska 156
NV Nevada 40
NH New Hampshire 175
NJ New Jersey 1208
NM New Mexico 142
NY New York 2152
NC North Carolina 677
ND North Dakota 21
OH Ohio 1233
OK Oklahoma 136
OR Oregon 593
PA Pennsylvania 919
RI Rhode Island 147
SC South Carolina 240
SD South Dakota 15
TN Tennessee 353
TX Texas 1341
UT Utah 141
VT Vermont 68
VA Virginia 1964
WA Washington 972
DC Washington D.C. 744
WV West Virginia 46
WI Wisconsin 280
WY Wyoming 28
AA Military--Asia 10
AE Military--Europe 92
AP Military--Pacific 46
AX Military--Unspecified 8
XX (Unknown) 6
----------------- ------
Total US Nets 28470
NOTE: THIS IS THE LAST REPORT IN THIS SERIES.
On April 30, 1995, the NSFNET Backbone Service was successfully
transitioned to the new architecture, where traffic is exchanged
at interconnection points called NAPs (Network Access Points.) With
the end of the NSFNET project, this data will no longer be collected.
6. Hosts (01 Sept 1997)
Mark Lottor, formerly at SRI but now at Network Wizards, uses the ZONE program to
determine the approximate number of Internet hosts, Domain Name System domains,
and hosts within domains. Detailed information about the ZONE program and
how it is used is available in RFC 1296.
Tony Rutkowski, former Executive Director of the Internet Society, says that a commonly used method of estimating the total number of Internet users is to multiply the number of host computers by 10. For example, in October 1993, the ZONE program identified 2 million hosts, which is equivalent to about 20 million users.
Date Hosts
08/81 213
08/83 562
10/85 1,961
12/87 28,174
10/89 159,000
10/90 313,000
10/91 617,000
10/92 1,136,000
10/93 2,056,000
10/94 3,864,000
7/95 6,642,000
7/96 12,881,000
7/97 19,540,000
Date Domains
07/88 900
07/89 3,900
10/90 9,300
07/91 16,000
10/92 18,100
10/93 28,000
10/94 56,000
7/95 120,000
7/96 488,000
7/97 1,301,000
Host Distribution by Top-Level Domain Name
4501039 com 17055 si 417 to 62 tz 6 cg
2942714 edu 14153 is 417 gl 62 dm 6 cf
2164815 net 12794 th 390 pa 59 nc 5 pn
955688 jp 10959 sk 350 na 58 ba 5 je
878215 uk 10861 id 349 jm 57 gy 5 gq
875631 de 10513 ua 345 qa 54 bs 4 ly
825048 us 6905 co 332 am 51 mv 3 ws
707611 au 6705 hr 298 ge 48 bf 3 vn
690316 ca 6566 ee 293 sa 44 mz 3 mm
542295 mil 6510 pe 275 sn 41 mg 3 mh
434654 org 5998 ro 275 gh 40 gb 2 ye
418576 gov 5515 bg 272 zw 35 vi 2 tm
341560 nl 5184 lv 258 mc 35 sc 2 sd
335956 fi 4794 in 255 zm 34 ne 2 sb
292096 fr 4679 ve 253 fo 32 vu 2 pw
284478 se 4309 ph 248 ci 31 dz 2 gn
211966 it 4259 cr 240 sz 29 tc 2 as
209034 no 3854 lu 239 py 29 ml 1 vc
155678 nz 3555 kw 238 bw 27 gf 1 tp
148028 ch 2885 yu 236 bn 26 ug 1 ms
137008 dk 2761 lt 220 mo 25 do 1 ir
132370 kr 1994 ae 211 mu 24 bz 1 gd
121823 es 1973 cy 200 sv 20 bb 1 er
117475 za 1894 eg 170 jo 19 im 1 ck
87408 at 1648 bm 168 md 18 ao 1 bt
86117 be 1136 kz 165 np 17 mn 0 tv
81104 ru 1128 lb 165 ag 16 ls 0 sy
68685 br 1078 ec 160 nf 16 cv 0 sr
61140 il 1024 uy 155 ad 15 tn 0 sl
60674 sg 959 pk 153 uz 13 gg 0 re
49104 cz 896 bh 147 pf 13 bj 0 om
48660 hk 888 ma 138 gi 12 ky 0 mw
43384 pl 882 gt 127 gp 12 kn 0 mr
40706 tw 785 mt 114 pr 10 va 0 mp
40533 my 743 ni 108 kg 10 gw 0 lr
38363 su 734 sm 107 al 9 dj 0 la
35238 mx 724 int 101 aw 8 zr 0 ki
33818 hu 611 lk 91 gu 8 bi 0 iq
33031 ie 590 hn 84 an 7 vg 0 ht
25594 cn 538 bo 81 az 7 nu 0 gm
22963 tr 479 li 79 pg 7 kh 0 fm
19711 gr 457 ke 75 cm 6 tg 0 fk
19168 cl 451 by 74 lc 6 rw 0 fj
18985 ar 429 mk 71 ai 6 ng 0 et
18147 pt 423 tt 67 cu 6 mq 0 aq