On Cisco IOS voice gateways, the playout (de-jitter) buffer discards packets that arrive outside its range, and dropouts are then heard in the audio. The DSP can interpolate over small losses, but problems become audible when jitter exceeds what it can compensate.

Checked 2026-09-25

If the jitter is so large that it causes packets to be received out of the range of this buffer, the out-of-range packets are discarded and dropouts are heard in the audio.
Vendor
Cisco
Product
Cisco IOS voice gateways
Subsystem
playout delay buffer
Deployment
on-premises
Region
not restricted
Release range
Cisco IOS DSP voice platforms; document dated 2006
Checked
2026-09-25

Sources

Cite this note

APA

WarmTransfer. (2026, September 25). Choppy and robotic audio on calls: source note choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts. WarmTransfer. https://warmtransfer.net/knowledge/claims/choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts

BibTeX

@misc{warmtransfer-claim-choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts,
  title  = {Choppy and robotic audio on calls: source note choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts},
  author = {{WarmTransfer}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://warmtransfer.net/knowledge/claims/choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts},
  note   = {Source note choppy-audio-troubleshooting-cisco-buffer-dropouts, checked 2026-09-25}
}

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