VoIP protocols are designed to expect the exact condition described here; i.e., packets out of order and variation in the rate at which packets are received. A

VoIP protocols are designed to expect the exact condition described here; i.e., packets out of order and variation in the rate at which packets are received. A buffer is used to account for volatility in network latency. The size of this buffer is one of the more important problems that must be solved when implementing VoIP. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter#Jitter_buffers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jitter#Jitter_buffers