Have you ever had too much caffeine, and suddenly, you start feeling jittery or shaky for the next few hours? Imagine that same feeling, but with your VoIP phone call. Without warning, words are jumbled and mixed around. Parts of sentences have completely disappeared. That’s network jitter. Shaky, jittery, lagging network connections can wreak havoc on your digital experience and ruin productivity for your team.
The Official Definition of Jitter
Jitter: any deviation on or displacement to the signal pulses in a high-frequency digital signal.
What is jitter in simple terms?
Jitter is a word in networking that describes a few short interruption errors during data transmission. It may cause network congestion, collisions, or signal interference. Technically, jitter refers to variations in latency – the delays between transmitting signals and receiving.
Jitter consists of anything you can send over your wireless network that is transmitted via data packets. Data packets can be audio, images, text, phone calls, or video information.
If you have ever been on a Zoom call and experienced annoying or choppy audio lagging, a flicker in your monitor, low video quality, or those irritating visual and audio distortions on a VoIP call… congratulations—you have experienced jitter issues.
You probably thought it was solely connected to your internet connection. However, the lag you are experiencing with Zoom can be the result of high jitter. Let’s take a deeper dive into the causes and solutions for jitter.
There are two types of jitter: Random and deterministic.
Random jitter is also called intrinsic noise on data lines because it’s usually always present in all systems. Deterministic jitter, on the other hand, is not intrinsic to the system. It usually has a cause, which means you can fix it.
Jitter: A breakdown
Voices and images are broken down into hundreds and thousands of data packets, which are sent throughout the internet to various servers through your internet service provider.
Once the data packages arrive at their virtual destination, they reassemble to form the data that appears on the monitor or the network line.
Most of the time this process is a regular and smooth transition, giving you a clear, seamless transition. but in the event there is a fluctuation in the packet delay variation – it creates (you guessed it) jitter.
Jitter can result in network congestion, drifts, and route changes. It can also cause inconvenience in video conferencing, ultimately degrading the quality of communications.
Although you can not completely rid yourself of the annoying effects of jitter, you can educate yourself on how to monitor network jitter and reduce the effects of jitter.
What causes network jitter?
Good question! Here’s how jitter occurs. Data is sent across the internet in discrete “data packets”. For example, in a voice call, when you speak, a series of voice packets are sent across the data line.
In an ideal world, these data packets are sent across a network regularly and take a fixed amount of time to reach their destination. However, sometimes, whether due to network congestion or route changes, these packets don’t arrive on time.
Since the gap between the data packets is erratic and varied, it affects the quality of service, leading to delays in voice or video. This is how internet jitter can make your voice over internet protocol (VOIP) calls or streaming a frustrating experience.
Understanding jitter can help you decrease its overall effects on your internet connection.
Here are a few things that can cause jitter and network congestion:
- Outdated networks – older equipment like cable routers are often a foundational cause of jitter.
- Limited bandwidth – networks with overcrowded networks can perform poorly and cause lagging and low network performance.
- Lack of data packet prioritization – for VOIP services, in particular, jitter can often occur when audio data is not prioritized over other types of traffic.
Does this sound familiar? The causes of jitter are closer than you think, and the good news is that the solution to decreasing your network jitter is just as close!
How can you reduce jitter in networking? A look at Jitter Buffers
Now that you know what jitter is, and have taken a look at the common causes, here are a few pointers on how you can minimize jitter in your network
- Out with the old, in with the new – Upgrade your ethernet cable. Just like you upgrade your new iPhone every year, your cable deserves an upgrade, too. Upgrades in equipment can help reduce jitter in your network.
- Minimize unnecessary bandwidth usage – Keeping your bandwidth to a minimum during work hours can serve as a jitter butter. We know you may be secretly binge-watching your favorite show during the client’s meetings (don’t worry we won’t tell your boss), but streaming while working can make your jitter worse. Instead, stream your favorite shows at a time when your internet connection does have too many devices competing for data.
- Speaking of outside working hours, you can also reduce jitter by scheduling your application updates at an off-peak time. Doing so will help control internet traffic and give your network connection more capacity.
Is there an acceptable level of jitter?
There are tolerant levels of jitter within your network.
Jitter measurements occur in milliseconds (mS). In most cases, delays of at least 30 mS may cause disturbances. The jitter is below 150 mS for effective audio streaming. Increasing this jitter can cause problems in audio quality.
For some networks, a high level of jitter does not significantly affect the internet connection quality or speed; however, even the slightest instance of jitter can greatly disrupt other applications.
Certain applications or services are more sensitive towards jitter than others. For example, excessive jitters do not affect email messages as much as VoIP calls, so it is dependent on what you can accept from your internet service provider.
In the VoIP market, poor audio quality results in poor customer experience and can negatively impact business profitability.
Jitter and Network Latency
Before you go, it’s important to understand the difference between jitter and latency. Although it can be easy to conflate the two, they are different in several ways.
Jitter consists of the fluctuation in the intervals when data packets are sent and received. On the other hand, latency is delay in the transmission of data packets between machines. The two work together; the higher the jitter, the higher the latency and overall packet loss.
Inconsistent or high latency, along with high jitter, can be a serious issue. When using live streaming or VoIP services, remember to be vigilant to maintain a quality and consistent network connection.
You can mitigate jitter
Jitter can create a horrible experience for your network traffic, causing your wireless networks to lag and run slowly.
The good news is that fixing jitter doesn’t have to be difficult. You can decrease jitter and network latency with your connection by upgrading your ethernet cable and other equipment and applications promptly.
You can beat jitter, grab your coffee and prepare for the fight!
If you’re interested in learning about jitter, drop us a line here or download our free business case template “Continues Testing in Call Centers.”
