Wideband Speech Coding Advances in VMR-WB Standard

This paper presents novel techniques for source-controlled variable-rate wideband speech coding. These techniques have been used in the variable-rate multimode wideband (VMR-WB) speech codec recently selected by the Third-Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) for wideband (WB) speech telephony, streaming, and multimedia messaging services in the cdma2000 third-generation wireless system. The codec utilizes efficient coding modes optimized for different classes of speech signal including generic coding based on AMR-WB for transients and onsets, voiced coding optimized for stable voiced signals, unvoiced coding optimized for unvoiced segments, and comfort noise generation for inactive segments. Several innovations enable very good performance at average bit rates below 8 kb/s for active speech coding. The article presents an overview of the codec and describes in detail some of the codec novel features: Robust pitch tracking algorithm, coding-mode dependent prediction of linear prediction (LP) filter quantization, and novel frame erasure concealment techniques including supplementary information for reconstruction of lost onsets and improving decoder convergence. Selected results from the Selection and Characterization tests of the codec illustrate its performance