Jitter in a clock signal can cause communications faults in communications networks, such as in networks in which downstream nodes use recovered clock signals as timing for upstream communications. An embodiment of the present invention detects and compensates for jitter in a network by recovering a reference clock associated with communications signals between nodes, such as an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical Network Terminal (ONT) in a Passive Optical Network (PON). A local clock is synchronized with the reference clock. Jitter induced faults may be detected and compensated for by increasing the synchronization rate, then decreasing the synchronization rate until jitter induced faults begin to occur. A loss or change in a rate of communications errors occurring as a function of the synchronization rate may be monitored and reported to a system operator. Compensating for jitter by adjusting the synchronization rate provides for robust communications between network nodes.