Understanding Jitter VOIP and How to Reduce it

When communicating with potential clients or team members at work, a jittery call is the last thing you want. When a call is jittery, your or your contact's words can become jumbled, resulting in miscommunication and a frustrating communication experience. When jittery calls happen, they might affect clients' experience and, worse, your service. That said, investing in a network jitter test can best help you identify how much jitter is present on a network connection. Working with an affordable and reliable business phone service, you can be sure your VoIP has several to keep your call as seamless as possible.
Jitter can damage the reputation of your business when it comes to user experience. Since jitter gives intermittent disruptions, it hinders your ability to deliver a flawless connection with your clients and team. Understand the meaning of Jitter in VOIP, what causes jitter in VoIP, how to measure jitter in a network, and how to reduce jitter.
Understanding Jitter VOIP and How to Reduce It
Calling over the Internet is one of the best advancements in the telephony industry. One of the most popular telephone systems for many businesses is Voice over Internet Protocol. Although it provides fast and easy communication, VoIP may be interrupted due to some issues, including jitter. Jitter affects the quality of the call, making it difficult to ensure smooth communication. Now what exactly does jitter mean, and how can you reduce this problem?
What is Network Jitter?
Jitter is a time delay in sending information, otherwise known as network congestion. It happens when certain voice packets are dropped due to an inconsistent connection. It affects any real-time online communication, leading to jumbled words of conversation at every end. This communication issue can be annoying for the caller or receiver as it negatively impacts the quality of calls from every end.
What causes Jitter?
Knowing why jitter occurs in the first place should be your top priority. Being aware of the causes will help you to identify what you need to do to fix the underlying problem. Anything that interferes with the connection will also affect the quality of your VoIP call.
Network congestion
Heavy network traffic makes it difficult for you to converse with the other line. When the network is overcrowded, there is a tendency for data packets (which carry voice/call information) to be delayed or dropped. If other devices are connected to the same network, it will run out of bandwidth and lead to a slower connection.
Poor hardware performance
Bad hardware can also be the reason why a jittery call exists. If you have an old model or hardware that is not up to date, it will slow down the performance of your call, leading to a jitter VoIP. An outdated modem or a misconfigured router may produce a low-quality internet connection, impacting the communication performance of your VoIP phone.
Wireless networks
Another thing you should look into when experiencing jitter during your call is the wireless network itself. Wireless networks like Wi-Fi offer faster interconnectivity, but they also have their fair share of disadvantages. There are times when wireless networks get weaker compared to wired ones. Although it has many powerful aspects, it can be unstable sometimes.
No implementation of prioritized packet
The absence of packet prioritization can lead to a bad VoIP call. If the data packets are not prioritized the way they should be, the receiver of the call will undoubtedly experience a jittery call from time to time. Implementing a prioritized packet will reduce any network congestion, thus producing a stable internet connection and strong VoIP communication.
How to measure jitter?
Detecting a jitter is easy, as you will experience it yourself during a call. But knowing how to measure jitter will show you the extent of the network congestion that you are experiencing during calls. To guide you, here are the ways that you can measure jitter.
Try an online speed test
To evaluate the quality of your VoIP call, you can try an online speed jitter test. In most cases, a test will take less than one minute to complete and will give you instant feedback. The results will show you the measured information on your connection speed, latency, jitter level, and more.
Use network monitoring tools
Investing in network monitoring tools will best help you measure jitter. These tools can monitor the performance of your network to address the jitter issue. Using a proactive and advanced jittering tool ensures you will have no jittery calls, resulting in clear communication with your client or team member.
How to reduce jitter?
There is no doubt that jitter can lead to a serious communication problem. So, you need to find ways to reduce the issue to make a manageable VoIP call. To minimize the jittery problem, you can:
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Use a jitter buffer
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Prioritize packets
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Optimize your bandwidth
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Check the frequency of device used
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Upgrade hardware
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Minimize usage of bandwidth
Have a reliable VoIP call with Callture
Network jitter can significantly affect your business communication. It affects the flow of your conversation with clients, affecting the end-user experience. To reduce issues caused by jitter, you need a reliable VoIP service that will best meet your business phone needs. At Callture, we have a reliable business phone system for your everyday communication needs. Get the phone service that costs less and delivers more with Callture!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are the effects of jitter on VoIP?
Having a jittery call can be a frustrating experience, especially if you are talking to someone. VoIP jitter is unpredictable, so you can't be sure when it will occur. That is why you need a reliable VoIP phone service to best help you with every business communication. You might encounter sudden dropped calls, service disruptions, and missing words during communication if you don't address VoIP jitter.
What is acceptable jitter for the internet?
There are times when you experience a jittery call. If this happens, you should take note of the acceptable jitter delays in your communication. According to Cisco, the jitter tolerance should be below 30 ms, and latency should not exceed 150 ms. If the count exceeds the standard tolerance, then the call won't be able to maintain the quality of service you expect.
How do you test the jitter on VoIP?
One of the easiest ways to test jitter on your VoIP phone is to simply check the connection using a Ping test. A Ping test will give you information about the latency and data loss of the packet of the device that you are using. Investing in some jitter tools for VoIP quality testing is also helpful.
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