The Effects of High-Speed Networks on Multimedia Jitter
Jitter can cause silent gaps in the playout of an audio stream such as in an audioconference, or a choppy appearance to a video stream for a videoconference, especially under conditions of high processor load. We experimentally measure the effects of high-speed networks on jitter in a multimedia stream. We incorporate our jitter measurements into a general model for multimedia application quality. Our model allows us to explore how advances network speeds will improve application quality compared with other jitter reduction techniques. As an example, we apply our model to a videoconference. We find high-speed networks significantly reduce jitter under conditions of heavy processor load, but tend to affect overall quality less than processor improvements.