A robust low rate voice codec for wireless communications

The design, implementation and performance of a high quality low bit rate speech codec for wireless communication is presented. The codec is based on the CELP model. Generalized analysis-by-synthesis, algebraic fixed codebooks, and multistage LSF techniques are used, resulting in robustness to transmission errors and high quality across changing speech levels and background noise conditions. The bit allocations for the quantization of LSF, pitch and the excitation are chosen in a mode specific manner based on a robust mode classification scheme. A 4.8 kb/s version has been implemented and subjective tests show speech quality that is equivalent to or better than most cellular standard codecs. Performance is also consistent across speech levels and transmission errors.