Jitter measures the inconsistency of a signal over time, such as the fluctuating arrival times of data packets across a network. High jitter degrades real-time applications like voice calls and video streams, causing audio artifacts or dropped frames. Network engineers mitigate it by configuring quality of service rules and deploying jitter buffers to smooth out the data delivery.
The VoIP calls sound robotic because we're seeing 40 milliseconds of jitter on the WAN link.
Also heard as
- packet delay variation
Related terms
Latency
The time it takes for a packet of data to travel from its source to its destination.
QoS
A set of network mechanisms used to prioritize specific types of traffic over others.
Quality of service
The measurable performance of a network service as experienced by the end user or application.
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol is the standard technology for transmitting telephone calls over data networks.
Round-trip time
The total time required for a data packet to travel from a source to a destination and for the acknowledgment to return.