Quality assessment tool

A method of assessing speech quality in a telecommunications network comprising the steps of:

• generating a parameter from a signal comprising a sequence of values measured from voiced portions of said signal at a sampling frequency, said parameter suitable for use in a quality assessment tool, said method comprising the sub-steps of:
• a) selecting a section of said signal;
• b) performing a frequency transform on said section to provide a sequence of frequency values;
• c) generating a pitch frequency estimate;
• d) selecting a plurality of portions of said sequence of frequency values in dependence upon said pitch frequency estimate, said portions having a frequency range and a central frequency;
• e) generating an average value for each of said plurality of portions;
• f) generating a section parameter in dependence upon the difference between the average value for one portion of said sequence of frequency values and the average value for a subsequent portion of said sequence of frequency values;
• g) repeating steps a)-f) to provide a plurality of said section parameters and generating said parameter by generating an average in dependence upon said plurality of said section parameters;
• generating a quality measure in dependence upon said parameter;
• and
• storing said quality measure on a computer readable medium accessible by a user for visualization and analysis.