2020 was a tough year for humans — and for networks. As daily lives were interrupted and people stayed home rather than travel or gather for work, school or entertainment, there was an accompanying flip-flop in network traffic patterns: Far more reliance on a distributed network of at-home connections than those at businesses, schools or large venues that are built to handle massive traffic. Voice traffic surged, particularly in the early days as people tried to stay in touch with each other, and Virtual Private Network traffic skyrocketed as workers logged in from home.
