Packet Jitter and Jitter Variance

Argus can provide direct support for reporting single-point packet jitter and jitter variance metrics.

When configured to provide jitter information, Argus will calculate the maximum, minimum, mean and standard deviation for the interpacket arrival times for packets within a given flow.  For TCP traffic, the TCP handshake packets are excluded from this metric. The square of the standard deviation metric is the variance of the interpacket arrival time. 

Argus is aware of RTP and PCMU, PCMA, G722, G728 and G729 silence suppression indications, and thus can provide reliable jitter information in the presence of silence suppression for IP telephony.

When deployed in multiple locations along the path of a given flow, comparisons between the mean and variance for the interpacket arrival times can reveal the location of jitter variance.