How can jitter be compensated on an IP network that carries real-time VoIP traffic with acceptable voice transmission quality?

VAD replaces silent periods with comfort noise to reduce bandwidth consumption, but does not address variable packet arrival delays caused by jitter.

Switching from G.729 to G.711 increases bandwidth usage and changes audio fidelity, but does not compensate for or mitigate network jitter at the receiver.

RSVP reserves network bandwidth for flows but does not buffer or smooth out packet timing variations that cause jitter at the receiver endpoint.

A playout buffer (jitter buffer) queues incoming voice packets and plays them back at a steady, controlled pace, smoothing out the variable inter-arrival delays caused by jitter. This directly addresses the root cause of jitter-induced voice quality degradation without requiring codec changes or signaling protocol modifications. It is the standard mechanism used in VoIP endpoints and gateways to maintain acceptable voice quality on best-effort IP networks.