Various embodiments of the present technology generally relate to systems and methods for packet-based communications. More specifically, some embodiments provide cause a machine (e.g., client device, data center, collaboration service, etc.) to receive data packets from a network. The data packets can include payloads that represent encoded data from a real-time communication between multiple devices and can be copied into multiple jitter buffers. The multiple jitter buffers can include a first jitter buffer having a first size and a second jitter buffer having a second size that is larger than the first size of the first jitter buffer. In some embodiments, the machine can decode the data packets or payloads from the multiple jitter buffers to create at least a first output signal from first jitter buffer and a second output signal from the second jitter buffer.