What is Jitter?

 

When reviewing IP networks there are three KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that are vital to a high performance network.

 

1.         Packet loss

2.         Latency

3.         Jitter

 

Packet loss and Latency are significant however Jitter is the one KPI often overlooked or misunderstood.

 

Jitter is the deviation in latency and is very generally seen on the internet rather than on neighborhood. For example on the off chance that you ping www.google.com you may well see response times shifting from 53 ms to as much as 63 ms and that is Jitter the difference between the base and most extreme latency. On a LAN for example you will rarely see the Jitter as pings to a neighborhood server will be 1ms and be pretty steady.

 

The effect Jitter has on data networks is negligible even over the internet and this is because when traversing the internet TCP/IP is used as the vehicle convention. Fortunately, TCP has built in features that mitigate Jitter and latency, for example, reordering of packets and resending any lost packets. However, on voice and video traffic TCPs techniques are very little use as there is little point in sending a real-time voice packet on the off chance that it was lost in travel. Likewise, real time video streaming does not benefit from packet reordering or resending of packets. Consequently, voice and video require low latency networks with insignificant Jitter.

 

In the event that a network has excessive Jitter, then it most likely won't be noticeable during ordinary data operation. However in the event that you discover poor video or voice quality it is something to pay special mind to.

 

Consequently, when determining the quality of a network to help voice and video, the key variables to pay special mind to is Jitter of less than 30ms, anything above that can cause lackluster showing and poor voice or video quality. There are some ways inside LANS and WANS to reduce Jitter, one is to deploy QoS (Quality of Service) another is to prioritize Voice and Video traffic however that regularly is done as a matter of course. Unfortunately QoS doesn't work over the internet as you have no influence over the intermediately routers that your traffic is going through or even the route the packets are even taking. However, one solution is to attempt and in any event make sure the source of the Jitter isn't on your own uplink internet pipe to your ISP, and often the main solution is to increase the bandwidth.

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Jitter is any deviation in, or displacement of, the signal pulses in a high-frequency digital signal. The deviation can be in terms of amplitude, phase timing or the width of the signal pulse. To perform Jitter Speed Test, you can use Test My Internet Speed (TMIS) will make a accurate result.

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