Automated Network Jitter Test

Continuous Jitter Monitoring Across Every Network Path

See Jitter Patterns, Not Just Snapshots

Jitter problems are often intermittent. They show up during peak traffic, network congestion, or at times nobody's actively watching, and they're gone by the time someone opens a terminal to check. A one-off ping or speed test gives you a single data point in time. That's rarely enough to act on.  

PRTG runs jitter tests automatically on a configurable polling cycle and stores every reading. Trend graphs show how values behave over hours, days, or weeks. You move from "we had a complaint and ran a test" to "here's what high jitter looked like, reading by reading, over the past 30 days."

• 24/7 automated measurement
• Configurable polling interval per sensor
• Historical trend graphs with timestamps
• Threshold-based alerting via email, SMS, or push notification
• Alert contacts configurable per threshold level

One Platform for All Your Jitter and QoS Testing

The typical manual setup (ping for basic delay, iperf for UDP throughput, Wireshark for packet inspection) gets the job done for a one-time check. But it requires setup every time, produces no alerts, and retains nothing between sessions. There's nothing to look back at.  

PRTG's dedicated jitter sensors run without manual intervention and store everything in one place. Ping Jitter (ICMP) handles lightweight, vendor-agnostic tests with response time reporting. QoS One Way and Round Trip (UDP) measure between two probe locations for directional accuracy. Cisco IP SLA taps into Cisco IOS infrastructure directly. All the test results land in one dashboard.

• 4 sensor types covering different environments and precision needs
• No coding or scripting required
• Live dashboards alongside historical data
• Exportable measurement data for reporting

Timestamped Measurement Data for Every Provider Conversation

Timestamped measurement history gives you an objective starting point for any provider conversation about call quality or network degradation. Per-path data tells you which link the issue is on before the conversation even starts. When choppy audio hits a VoIP call, video conferencing drops, or network quality degrades, the data from that window is already there. You don't have to reconstruct what happened, and the metrics speak for themselves.

• Timestamped readings for all sensor values
• Exportable reports for sharing with your internet service provider, VoIP provider, or internal stakeholders
• Latency and packet loss measured alongside jitter
• MOS scores for VoIP quality assessment via Cisco IP SLA sensor
• Per-path data to help distinguish whether issues are internal or on the provider's side

Know Which Path Has the Problem

A network-wide view tells you something's wrong, but it often doesn't tell you where. When one office, one WAN link, or one wi-fi segment has elevated jitter, a global health status isn't enough. You need per-path visibility to optimize your troubleshooting and avoid changes that don't fix anything.  

Deploy a remote probe at the branch or remote site, and PRTG's QoS sensors measure that specific internet connection directly, whether over ethernet cable, VPN, or wireless infrastructure. This is a one-time setup step. Once the probe is in place, measurement runs continuously. Cisco IP SLA handles the same for Cisco IOS-based branch infrastructure. You narrow the problem to a specific link before touching anything else, saving time and avoiding blind infrastructure changes.

• Remote probes for per-path and per-site measurement
• QoS One Way and Round Trip sensors for directional and bidirectional testing
• Works over VPN-connected networks
• Geo-map visualization of probe locations
• Cisco IP SLA for Cisco-based branch infrastructure

Paessler PRTG Network Monitor licenses & pricing

Choose the PRTG Network Monitor subscription that's best for you.