Which term describes the variation in latency over time, which is critical for real-time applications such as VoIP and video conferencing?

Which term describes the variation in latency over time, which is critical for real-time applications such as VoIP and video conferencing?

• A. Jitter
• B. Packet Loss
• C. Latency
• D. Bandwidth

Answer: (A)

Jitter is the variation in packet arrival times over a connection. Real-time applications like VoIP and video conferencing rely on data arriving at roughly regular intervals; when the timing varies, packets can arrive too late or out of sequence, causing glitches in audio or video. The key idea is not how far the packets are delayed on average (latency) or whether some packets are lost (packet loss) or how much data can be carried (bandwidth), but how unpredictable the timing is from packet to packet. That unpredictability is what degrades real-time quality, making jitter the best description. To mitigate it, networks use jitter buffers and quality-of-service controls to smooth out the inconsistencies and keep the stream steady.

Jitter is the variation in packet arrival times over a connection. Real-time applications like VoIP and video conferencing rely on data arriving at roughly regular intervals; when the timing varies, packets can arrive too late or out of sequence, causing glitches in audio or video. The key idea is not how far the packets are delayed on average (latency) or whether some packets are lost (packet loss) or how much data can be carried (bandwidth), but how unpredictable the timing is from packet to packet. That unpredictability is what degrades real-time quality, making jitter the best description. To mitigate it, networks use jitter buffers and quality-of-service controls to smooth out the inconsistencies and keep the stream steady.