Fiber optic connections are getting faster. Operators are increasing speeds to 500, 600 and 1,000 Mbps , with the minimum available being 100 Mbps. All these connections have something in common if they are contracted within the same operator: that the latency and jitter they offer are the same, as long as there are no other people saturating our network with their connection.
The latency that we have with fiber optics has the advantage of being very low and stable . In the areas of the peninsula farthest from Madrid, we have latencies even less than 20 ms, while in the Community of Madrid itself, the latency is usually set to the minimum allowed by GPON technology . With the XGS-PON, the latency drops even further to figures of 1 ms or even 0 ms depending on where the server we are testing is located.
The jitter: is your latency stable?
However, there are several factors that can affect this latency stability. Generally, it is difficult for there to be any technical problem on the part of the operator, since the fiber optic connections are very stable. However, indoors we can have a multitude of problems.
For example, if we have 100 Mbps fiber and there are several of us at home, it is not difficult for someone to saturate the connection if they are downloading a file, or there are several people watching Netflix at the same time. In those situations, even if we have a good QoS that prioritizes the gaming connection, we are going to have some instability in the signal.
These instability problems can be even greater if we use a WiFi connection . If we are far from the router, or we have several people using the router over WiFi, a “queue” begins to form, and the data that reaches our computer or console can take a few milliseconds and make the connection unstable.
Those unstable wait times is what is known as jitter . Jitter is a jitter measured in milliseconds, which measures the variation in delay between the packets we receive. If a network becomes congested, the waiting time increases, and therefore the jitter.
Packages can even be lost, generating, for example, jerks and teleportations in an online game by momentarily losing the package that determines the position of a person, and then suddenly recovering it. Therefore, the character in a game can move back and forth very quickly, having lost the correct order of the packages and having to compensate and correct that loss.
How to improve jitter
Although jitter is usually more noticeable in situations such as online gaming, which is very sensitive to latency and instability, we may also notice problems in voice traffic in apps like Discord. The closer it is to zero, the better. If the jitter we have is zero, it means that our connection is perfectly stable and we are not suffering any loss of packets, and that all are arriving in order.
In games like CS: GO it is normal for there to be some instability with fiber connections, but it is almost always 0.4 ms or less. In the following image we can see the jitter in the area that says “var”, indicating variation.
Therefore, to reduce jitter it is important to have a good router with MU-MIMO with independent channels if we play over WiFi, or alternatively to use an Ethernet cable to guarantee the best stability. If there are many people using the Internet at home, you may need to hire more fiber speed.