Difference Between Jitter and Latency (with Comparison Chart)

Apr 14, 2023 · 3 min read ·

Share on:

jitter vs latency Jitter and latency are the characteristics attributed to the flow in the application layer. The jitter and latency are used as the metrics to measure the performance of the network. The main difference between the jitter and latency lies within their definition where latency is nothing but a delay through the network whereas the jitter is variation in the amount of the latency.

The increase in latency and jitter have the adverse effect on the network performance, so it is essential to monitor it periodically. This increase in latency and jitter occurs when the speed of the two device does not match; congestion causes the buffers to overflow, traffic bursts.

Content: Jitter and Latency

Comparison Chart

Basis for comparison	Jitter	Latency
Basic	Difference in delay between the two consecutive packets.	Delay through the network.
Causes	Congestion in the network.	Propagation delay, serialisation, data protocols, switching, routing, buffering of packets.
Prevention	Using a timestamp.	Multiple connections to the internet.

Definition of Jitter

Jitter is the difference between the delays of the IP packets. In other words, when the delay of latency of the variate through the network it causes jitter. It can be explained with an example, assume four packets are sent at times 0, 1, 2, 3 and received at 10, 11, 12, 13, the delay between the packets are same in all packets which is 10 units of time. In the different case, if these packets arrive at 11, 13, 11, and 18, then the generated delay is 11, 12, 9, 15 which will be different from the above case.

The first form of delay would not affect the applications such as audio and video, because all packets have the same delay. However, in the second case, the different delay for the packet is not acceptable, and it also results in the arrival of the packets in out of order. The high jitter signifies that the difference between the delays is massive while low jitter means the variation is small.

Definition of Latency

The latency is the time required by a data packet to reach the destination from the source. In the networking terms, the time expended between the processing of the request for accessing the network generated by the user and getting a response of the request to the user. Broadly, the latency is the time elapsed between the execution of the two events.

Latency is simply the time required to process the messages at both source and destination ends and the delays generated in the network. There are two ways in which the network latency can be measured, first one is called as one-way latency in which the time elapsed in the source sending the packet and destination receiving it, is only measured. While in the other type, the one-way latency from node A to node B is summed up with the one-way latency from the node B back to the node A and it is known as round trip.

Key Differences Between Jitter and Latency

The delay produced in the departure and arrival of the IP packet from the source to destination is known as latency. Conversely, jitter it the variation in the delay produced by the packets transmission.

Congestion in the network can cause jitter while latency can be produced through propagation delay, switching, routing and buffering.

The jitter can be prevented by using timestamps. In contrast, the latency can be reduced by using multiple connections to the internet.

Conclusion

The Jitter and Latency are the crucial metrics to monitor and measure the network performance. Latency is the period starting from the transmission of the packet from the sender to the reception of the packet at the receiver. On the other hand, the jitter is the difference between the forwarding delay of the two consecutive received packets in the same streams.

ncG1vNJzZmislZi1pbXFn5yrnZ6YsrR6wqikaJyZm7OmvsSnmp5lkprBuLHEp2SjoaSpsrN5wKebZqSRqbKvr9hnn62lnA%3D%3D