Latency, Jitter and Packet Loss Explained

Real-time media is unforgiving. Even small amounts of jitter or packet loss produce audible and visible degradation long before a file download would notice.

The three metrics that matter

• Latency (round-trip time): delay between endpoints. Above ~300 ms, conversation becomes awkward.
• Jitter: variation in packet arrival timing. Above ~30 ms, audio buffers struggle.
• Packet loss: dropped packets. Above ~3% (0.03), audio breaks up and video freezes.

Locating the problem on the path

Work hop by hop from the endpoint outward: local Wi-Fi link, home or office router, ISP, then the path into the cloud provider’s network (ingress). Comparing metrics at each segment tells you whether the issue is local, at the ISP, or beyond your control.