A comparison of the new 2400 bps MELP Federal Standard with other standard coders

In 1996, the U.S. Department of Defense Digital Voice Processing Consortium (DDVPC) selected Texas Instrument's mixed excitation linear prediction (MELP) algorithm as the recommended new Federal Standard for 2400 bps voice communications. The algorithm selection process involved quality, intelligibility, communicability, and recognizability testing in many acoustic noise, error, and tandem conditions. Algorithm complexity was also measured. This paper compares the performance scores, diagnostic information, and complexity of MELP to the 4800 bps Federal Standard (FS1016) code excited linear prediction (CELP) algorithm, the 16 kbps continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSD) algorithm, and the venerable Federal Standard (FIPS Pub. 137) 2400 bps linear predictive coding (LPC-10) algorithm.