If you’ve ever experienced choppy audio or video calls, slow website loading, or laggy gaming sessions, chances are you’ve dealt with either latency or jitter issues – or possibly both. These problems plague networks both large and small, from Fortune 500 companies to neighborhood coffee shops offering free WiFi.
While latency and jitter may sound similar, they are distinct phenomena that can severely impact network performance and user experience in different ways. Effective network monitoring and network optimization are essential for maintaining optimal performance levels. When examining jitter vs latency metrics, IT teams must understand their unique characteristics to properly diagnose and resolve network issues.
Understanding the jitter vs latency dynamic requires diving deep into how these two metrics affect different types of network traffic and applications. This guide will cover everything you need to know about jitter and latency. Let’s start by clearly defining these two performance-killers.
What is latency?
Latency refers to delays in data transfer time across a network. It’s the round-trip time it takes for packets to go from source to destination and back again. The higher the latency, the greater the delay.
Latency manifests as lag between a user action and the network response. Actions include clicking links, loading web pages and images, refreshing email, downloading/uploading files, etc. For video calls, high latency causes unsynced audio and video plus talk overlap when participants speak over each other. In online gaming, excessive latency throws off the timing and speed of action.
Ideally, we want latency as close to 0 ms as possible. However, under 150 ms is typically acceptable for most applications today. Latency under 30 ms is perceptually instantaneous.
What causes latency?
Some top sources of high latency include:
- Physical distance and geographical barriers slowing down data transfer speeds
- Network congestion and bottlenecks overwhelming device buffers
- Low-grade transmission mediums like poor category cable and low-frequency wireless
- Packet loss requiring retransmissions
- Not enough bandwidth to handle traffic volumes
- Improper network configurations leading to suboptimal packet routing
What is jitter?
Jitter refers to inconsistent packet arrival times, or variability in latency across a network. It occurs when the delay between data packet deliveries fluctuates, causing packets to arrive at their destination out of order.
For example, let’s say Packet 1 and Packet 2 are sent 10 milliseconds apart from each other. Due to network congestion, Packet 1 arrives 20 ms later but Packet 2 arrives 50 ms later at the destination. This 30 ms difference between the expected arrival time and actual arrival time is known as jitter.
High jitter directly translates to noticeable quality issues for applications like video conferencing, VOIP calls, live video streaming, and online gaming. Common symptoms include stuttering audio, pixelation and buffering video, choppy game animations, and distorted voice calls.
Jitter is usually measured in milliseconds (ms) and optimal values vary by use case. For voice and video, most experts recommend keeping jitter under 30 ms. Gaming applications can tolerate jitter between 30-50 ms. File downloads are far less sensitive to jitter issues.
What causes jitter?
There are a few core culprits behind jittery networks:
- Network congestion and bottlenecks: Too much traffic cramming through a network device at once. This could stem from bandwidth-hungry applications, routing issues, and more.
- Faulty network equipment like worn routers and low-grade switches: Issues with packet errors, packet discards, and packet loss can disrupt packet forwarding.
- Wireless interference: Packets drop due to noise in the airwaves between devices.
- Improper QoS configurations: Traffic priorities that delay latency-sensitive packets and let non-critical packets through sooner.
Jitter vs. latency: What’s the difference?
While jitter vs latency may seem similar and both refer to delays in packet transmission, key differences exist between the two.
Latency deals with the total travel time of packets through a network, from source to destination and back again. It measures the average roundtrip delay of groups of packets.
Jitter focuses specifically on the variability between packet delivery times. It occurs when delays between individual packets fluctuate because some packets take longer routes through the network than others.
For example, let’s explore streaming video traffic:
- High overall latency would mean the video takes a long time to initially load and start playing when first clicked. However, once streaming, playback might be smooth.
- High jitter would manifest as sporadic interruptions, stalling, buffering pauses, pixelation, and changing quality levels mid-stream despite an initially fast start. Underlying packet flows stutter.
So, in essence, latency refers to the total delay, while jitter is about inconsistent delays. While latency deals mainly with congestion, transmission distances, and bandwidth sufficiency, jitter ties closely to problems with QoS misconfigurations, faulty equipment, interference, and microbursts overwhelming buffers.
Why do jitter and latency matter?
Frustrated users and lost revenue. That’s what’s at stake if jitter and latency issues run rampant across a network. Let’s explore why it’s so critical to control them.
User experience takes a nosedive
Choppy video calls, laggy mobile sites, constant buffering, game glitches, stuttering audio – high jitter and latency create awful user experiences that drive customers crazy. People expect seamless, real-time interactivity. If they don’t get it, they’ll quit using the application or service altogether.
Business operations get disrupted
Many organizations rely on modern real-time collaboration platforms internally for activities like video conferences, file sharing, messaging, and project progress tracking. Latency and jitter can grind business operations to a halt. Video calls descend into confusion, large file transfers slow to a crawl, chat messages encounter lengthy delays, and updates don’t sync properly across teams. Productivity and efficiency fall dramatically.
Revenue and reputation fall
Externally, jitter and latency issues directly hurt customer retention and profits. From retail sites to SaaS platforms, financial services apps to social media, and everything in between, latency above a fraction of a second starts to turn users away.
For example, Amazon reported that latency of 100 ms would lead to a decline in revenues of 1%, equating to approximately $745 million per year.
High jitter makes streaming content stutter and stall. Customers will quickly move to competitor sites and apps that offer faster and smoother experiences.
Not only does this churn cost money, but negative brand sentiment spreads quickly across social channels. Customers frustrated by jitter and latency vent their complaints where all their friends and followers can see, creating public relations headaches.
In short, controlling jitter and latency is mandatory for delivering high network performance that satisfies users and keeps business operating smoothly.
How to reduce latency
To minimize delays, IT teams can take the following actions:
Shorten the distance
While we can’t move connected endpoints closer together physically, network traffic can be localized and optimized by hosting servers/applications in local data centers and points of presence (POPs). Content delivery networks (CDNs) also cache data like web pages and videos regionally to slash latency. WAN optimization likewise reduces chattiness and packets sent over long distances.
Add bandwidth
Understanding network throughput vs bandwidth is crucial when planning capacity upgrades. Throwing more bandwidth at straining networks relieves congestion and ensures plenty of capacity for uninterrupted flows especially during traffic spikes at peak times. This prevents queued packets from piling up and timing out. Bonus bandwidth options include dedicated business lines and public/private peering links to bypass internet bottlenecks.
Configure QoS
Designating traffic priority via Quality of Service prevents important data from getting stuck behind streams that can handle delays without issue. This is key when available bandwidth consistently runs short. Deep packet inspection determines traffic types for automated sorting and throttling/speed boosts as warranted.
Troubleshoot the true culprits
While the above tackle symptoms, eliminating root causes of latency like faulty equipment, misconfigurations, and wireless interference prevents problems from recurring. Traceroute, path analysis, and VLAN monitoring expose issues. Baseline monitoring identifies anomalies. Packet capture sharpens troubleshooting. Deprecate aging hardware in favor of latest-gen models designed for speed.
How to reduce jitter
With an understanding of what’s causing jitters on your network, here are some ways to minimize it:
Upgrade bandwidth
If network congestion is the source of inconsistent packet delivery times, upgrading internet bandwidth may help ease traffic jams. A good guideline is supporting 12 simultaneous VoIP calls per 1 Mbps.
Beyond bandwidth bumps, determine which applications, users, or endpoints are hogging capacity and regulate their usage if needed.
Implement jitter buffers
Jitter buffering is a technique that collects small batches of incoming packets and releases them in regular intervals to smooth out arrival times. This adds a bit of extra latency by design to counteract jitter.
IT admins can enable jitter buffers on network devices as well as within VoIP/videoconferencing software clients. The downside is that larger buffers trigger longer base latency.
Prioritize traffic
By marking latency-sensitive traffic like voice and video as high priority, Quality of Service (QoS) settings allow this data preferential treatment through queues and buffers.
This prevents urgent packets from getting stuck behind streams like bulk software updates and video downloads. QoS is configured on routers, switches, and firewalls and gets fine-tuned based on application requirements.
Switch to wired
WiFi is extremely susceptible to interference and congestion. Switching jittery VoIP phones, video conferencing hardware, and latency-sensitive endpoints to wired Ethernet can improve consistency. This relieves traffic load on the wireless network too.
Troubleshooting jitter vs latency
When erratic VoIP calls, video glitches, and sluggish application performance pop up on the network, IT troubleshooting kicks off. Understanding the jitter vs latency relationship is essential for accurate diagnosis. Tracing the origins of jitter and latency comes down to legwork plus data.
Isolate impacted users and endpoints
Gather user complaints and feedback to pinpoint troublesome areas, including:
- Geographic regions/locations
- Wired vs wireless connections
- Critical applications affected
- Times of day issues occur
This helps narrow the search and deduce whether problems stem from WAN or LAN, bursts during peak congestion, and misconfiguration versus bandwidth overload.
Inspect traffic flows
Analytics from network monitoring systems provide visibility into volume, top talkers, QoS markings, and traffic types across network segments. Monitoring jitter and latency metrics by device shows if problems start at the local or remote endpoint. Deeper packet inspection reveals traffic flow bottlenecks and sources of buffer overruns choking flows.
Conduct speed tests
Run speed tests to compare current latency and jitter measurements between endpoints against service level agreement (SLA) baselines under normal conditions. Tests help determine if slowdowns tie to inside or outside the network. Comparing upload vs download quantifies packet handling inconsistencies indicative of jitter issues.
Check error logs
Dig into syslogs and event logs of networking gear like routers and LAN switches for discards, CRC errors, and queue overflows that disrupt traffic integrity. Trends may reflect faulty hardware past its prime. Log data fuels after-action analysis and future capacity planning.
Ultimately, troubleshooting latency and jitter requires both big picture visibility into infrastructure health and granular inspection of site-specific incidences. Leveraging monitoring tools for broad coverage plus targeted packet analysis pays dividends.
Top tools for monitoring jitter vs latency
Comprehensive network monitoring platforms provide the best capabilities for tracking jitter, latency, and overall network performance. When selecting tools to monitor jitter vs latency, consider solutions that maintain historical trends, trigger thresholds for alerts, and pinpoint faulty components. Leading options include:
Auvik
Trusted by hundreds of MSPs and enterprises worldwide, Auvik offers award-winning network management for network ops teams. Out-of-the-box dashboard widgets depict bandwidth utilization, traffic volumes, network saturation, latency, and jitter metrics across locations. Mapping illustrates performance by site.
Intelligent alerting flags SLA breaches to quickly identify issues. The interface ties granular metrics to impacted infrastructure for targeted troubleshooting. Automation detects performance degradations and initiates fixes like routing changes and device restarts to resolve latency and jitter problems with minimal manual work.
Auvik supports flexible deployment models including cloud and on-premise options for networks of all sizes. Scalable to over 100,000 devices, the distributed platform retains sub-second data granularity across large environments.
SolarWinds
SolarWinds VoIP and Network Quality Manager tracks VoIP/video traffic against preset latency, jitter, and packet loss thresholds. For Cisco and Avaya environments, it helps optimize UC&C performance and call quality. Integrations with SolarWinds’ Orion suite provide broader monitoring scope across hardware and software factors affecting performance.
PRTG by Paessler
PRTG Network Monitor offers affordable licensing for comprehensive network monitoring. With over 200 sensor types covering metrics from ping latency to temperature readings, it auto-discovers devices for detailed tracking out of the box. PRTG’s traffic flow sensors reveal sources of recurring congestion and trouble devices.
PingTrend
PingTrend delivers simplified web monitoring focused specifically on tracking critical metrics like latency and jitter. Continuous ping tests from multiple global points to servers/endpoints catch micro-changes in each metric. Historical views identify recurring issues or one-off trouble periods. Performance data exports to shareable reports with easy-to-read metrics charts.
StarTrinity Jitter and Packet Loss Test Tool
Available free for Windows, Linux, and Android, this open-source tool quantifies jitter and packet loss between two locations by exchanging concurrent UDP streams with timing data embedded. It outputs transmission quality metrics like bandwidth, jitter, loss, and uptime percentage for pinpointed network path troubleshooting.
Jitter vs latency FAQs
Still have some lingering questions around dealing with the trusted troublemakers – latency and jitter? Here we’ll address some frequently asked questions for deciphering these network gremlins and smoothing out your infrastructure.
How are jitter and latency related?
Jitter deals with inconsistent packet delays, latency with total packet travel time. High latency can cause jitter, but doesn’t necessarily. Shared network issues like bottlenecks can increase both simultaneously.
Why do they matter if connectivity works?
Even without connectivity loss, quality degradations from extra delays quickly dissatisfy users of real-time apps like video calls and gaming. Uncontrolled jitter and latency also hog network capacity.
What are acceptable levels?
Jitter should be under 30ms for VoIP and video. Overall latency should be under 150ms for software/websites. Extremely latency-sensitive systems require under 50ms. Lower is better across applications.
How to test and monitor them?
Monitoring platforms provide ongoing tracking by frequently polling endpoints to quantify consistency and delays. Solutions range from basic free tools to advanced real-time systems like Auvik covering monitoring, alerts and automated remediation.
What causes sudden VoIP quality issues?
Choppy calls and stuttering audio typically come from increased jitter disrupting voice packet flows. Common culprits are wireless interference, traffic priority mixups, and overloaded network equipment. Monitoring jitter exposes root cause.
Why does new fiber still show high latency?
Consistently high latency across applications points to external capacity bottlenecks with the ISP, not the last-mile infrastructure. Traffic shaping may also play a role. Compare internal vs external paths to address true source.
Mastering the jitter vs latency challenge
By now it should be clear that understanding the jitter vs latency relationship is crucial for maintaining healthy networks. From real-time video calls dropping to online orders timing out, unchecked performance disruptions directly hurt organizations and customers alike.
Getting a handle on the root causes of variability and delays provides IT teams with the power to resolve issues quickly and deliver the highest quality experiences across business services, collaboration platforms, infrastructure monitoring tools, and other applications. Leveraging capabilities from leading solutions like Auvik for deep network insights and automation elevates operations to the next level.
