Robust LPC spectrum quantization-vector quantization by a linear mapping of a block code

In this paper, we address the use of a vector quantizer (VQ) defined as a linear mapping of a block code (LMBC-VQ) in robust LPC spectrum quantization. Split VQ and multistage VQ of LSF's are considered. We demonstrate several properties for the LMBC-VQ including design methods and channel robustness theory. The LMBC-VQ codebooks are, guided by the robustness theory, directly designed with inherent robustness against channel errors. We demonstrate results where the resulting LMBC-VQ's outperform conventional codebooks designed with the generalized Lloyd algorithm in the presence of channel errors even when postprocessing index assignment is applied to the latter. Listening tests confirmed that the increased robustness is significant for the perceptual quality. We show that short block codes can be used to build the codebooks with no or small losses in quantization performance. This is advantageous for channel error robustness, lower memory requirement, and lower complexity. We also describe the structure of split VQ and multistage VQ using the LMBC framework. This allows us to assess the structural constraints and to generalize these VQ schemes, resulting in improved performance.