Performance of ITU-T G.729 8 kb/s CS-ACELP speech codec with nonvoice narrowband signals

A report is given on the results of a series of objective measurements conducted by COMSAT in a laboratory environment aimed at characterizing the narrowband performance of the ITU-T G.729 8 kb/s conjugate-structure algebraic code-excited linear prediction (CS-ACELP) speech coder. The test procedures followed ITU-T Recommendation G.720, "Characterization of Low-Rate Voice Coder Performance with Non-Voice Signals". It was concluded that the G.729 algorithm has excellent performance with narrowband signals in general (e.g., single tones and DTMF signals). As for Signaling System No. 5 (SS5) interregister signals, the G.729 CS-ACELP frequently failed to correctly identify SS5 digit 6 in a number of occurrences, using worst-case analysis equipment. This indicates that the SS5 performance of G.729 codecs in trunks where SS5 is used should be carefully measured before the network planner decides on its deployment. Great care should also be taken for tandem connections, since no test has been performed for these configurations.