How Do You Measure Jitter?
June 13, 2018
Category: Phone Systems
If you suspect that jitter is affecting your organization, you’ll want to measure it to ensure it’s not outside of the acceptable amount of jitter–no more than five to 10 milliseconds. Thankfully, there is an easy way to measure the amount of jitter in your network.
Testing Jitter Online
With Windows 10 or Mac OS, you’ll just need to download their Speedtest application, which will test upload and download speeds as well as jitter. Once the test is completed, you’ll want to click on the results, where you’ll find your jitter measurement.
Jitter is measured in milliseconds. It’s very normal to experience 1-3 milliseconds of jitter, but any more than that will cause issues (such as call breaking up or Internet lagging). A tip we recommend for clients is to leave buffer room if you are using a packet-shaper; if you have 50/10 megabytes in download/upload speed, you could set it to 45/8 in anticipation of increased bandwidth usage.
If you don’t have Windows 10 or Mac OS, websites such as this one provide the same measurement function.
Next Steps
Something to keep in mind when viewing your results is that, nine out of 10 times, jitter is caused by your Internet connection. So, a simple fix would be to reset or replace the Internet Service Provider (ISP) modem.
In any other instance, we recommend reaching out to a business phone systems company for assistance. The company can help you set up a provider meeting (with Comcast or Verizon, for example) and show them the results of the test. Then, it is up to the provider to resolve the issue. In our experience, engaging with the business phone systems company is crucial; otherwise, the ISP may not resolve the problem.
Founded in 2007, Datastream Communications is a hosted VOIP provider that offers businesses within the Mid-Atlantic region complete cloud phone systems as well as phone numbers.
We cover the entire process from initial consultation to installation and after purchase services. DataStream is heavily focused on customer service and quality and strives to provide the best possible customer experience. Contact us today to see how we can improve your phone quality.
