Method and device for determining a jitter buffer level

A method, comprising:

• determining, using a processing unit, a frame payload size difference for a plurality of video frames encoded into data packets sequentially received from a communications network, wherein a frame payload size difference is a difference in a payload size of a current frame and a payload size of a previous frame;
• determining, using the processing unit, a frame network transit delay for the plurality of video frames, wherein the frame network transit delay is a difference in a transport time between the current frame and the previous frame and an expected transport time between the current frame and the previous frame;
• determining, using the processing unit, a slope and a variance of a linear relationship between the frame payload size difference and the frame network transit delay for at least some of the plurality of video frames;
• and
• determining a buffer level of a jitter data buffer using a maximum frame payload size, an average frame payload size, the slope and the variance, the jitter data buffer located in memory associated with the processing unit.