Voice activity detection and silence suppression in a packet network

A system for processing background sound during a telephone call, the system comprising:

• a module configured to receive an input voice signal and a background noise signal and convert the input voice signal into a packetized voice signal and convert the noise signal into a packetized noise signal;
• a module configured to receive and convert the packetized voice signal into an output voice signal and receive and convert the packetized noise signal into an output noise signal;
• and
• a module configured to extract and store noise packets from the received packetized voice signal and convert the packetized noise signal into an output noise signal, wherein when the module configured to receive an input voice signal ceases to receive the input noise signal while the call is still ongoing, the module configured to receive the input voice signal instructs the module configured to extract and store the noise packets to continually output the output noise signal.

An egress gateway configured to provide noise processing for a call, the egress gateway configured to interface with an access gateway including an access silence suppressor, wherein the access gateway receives an input voice signal and a background noise signal and converts the input voice signal into a packetized voice signal and the background signal into a packetized noise signal, wherein the egress gateway comprises:

• a module configured to receive the packetized voice signal and the packetized noise signal;
• a module configured to output an output voice signal converted from the packetized voice signal;
• and
• a module configured to extract and store noise packets from the received packetized noise signal,
• wherein when the access gateway ceases to receive the input voice signal while the call is ongoing, the module configured to output the output voice signal continually outputs an output noise signal generated from the stored noise packets.