kb/data/developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Jitter-0.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Jitter - Glossary | MDN	1/3	https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Jitter	reference	web, html, css, javascript, documentation	2026-05-05T05:35:58.567101+00:00	kb-cron

• Skip to main content
• Skip to search

MDN HTML HTML: Markup language

HTML reference

• Elements
• Global attributes
• Attributes
• See all…

HTML guides

• Responsive images
• HTML cheatsheet
• Date & time formats
• See all…

Markup languages

• SVG
• MathML
• XML

CSS CSS: Styling language

CSS reference

• Properties
• Selectors
• At-rules
• Values
• See all…

CSS guides

• Box model
• Animations
• Flexbox
• Colors
• See all…

Layout cookbook

• Column layouts
• Centering an element
• Card component
• See all…

JavaScriptJS JavaScript: Scripting language

JS reference

• Standard built-in objects
• Expressions & operators
• Statements & declarations
• Functions
• See all…

JS guides

• Control flow & error handing
• Loops and iteration
• Working with objects
• Using classes
• See all…

Web APIs Web APIs: Programming interfaces

Web API reference

• File system API
• Fetch API
• Geolocation API
• HTML DOM API
• Push API
• Service worker API
• See all…

Web API guides

• Using the Web animation API
• Using the Fetch API
• Working with the History API
• Using the Web speech API
• Using web workers

All All web technology

Technologies

• Accessibility
• HTTP
• URI
• Web extensions
• WebAssembly
• WebDriver
• See all…

Topics

• Media
• Performance
• Privacy
• Security
• Progressive web apps

Learn Learn web development

Frontend developer course

• Getting started modules
• Core modules
• MDN Curriculum
• Check out the video course from Scrimba, our partner

Learn HTML

• Structuring content with HTML module

Learn CSS

• CSS styling basics module
• CSS layout module

Learn JavaScript

• Dynamic scripting with JavaScript module

Tools Discover our tools

• Playground

• HTTP Observatory

• Border-image generator

• Border-radius generator

• Box-shadow generator

• Color format converter

• Color mixer

• Shape generator

About Get to know MDN better

• About MDN

• Advertise with us

• Community

• MDN on GitHub

Blog

1. Glossary
2. Jitter

Jitter

Jitter is the term used in computer networking to refer to packet delay variation — the variance in the rate at which packets arrive at a destination (the average of the squared difference from the mean packet arrival rate). "High jitter" indicates that packets are arriving at significantly varying rates, possibly due to network congestion, packet loss, and routing of packets in a stream through different paths. High jitter can significantly degrade the performance of real-time web applications, including voice/video streaming and online gaming.

In this article

• Jitter buffer
• See also

Jitter buffer

Network protocols and applications, such as WebRTC, use a "jitter buffer" to mitigate the effects of packet delay variation. Jitter buffers temporarily store incoming packets and then release them at a steady, synchronized rate. They may also use forward error correction to fix corrupted packets, re-request missing packets, insert audio samples to conceal missing packets, slow down or speed up sample playout, and so on. This process smooths out the arrival times of packets and ensures a more consistent playout of real-time audio and video.

See also

• How WebRTC's NetEQ Jitter Buffer Provides Smooth Audio (webrtchacks.com, June 2025)