US 8,477,760 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for performing active packet bundling in a voice over IP communications system based on voice concealability

AssigneeAlcatel Lucent Paris

InventorsMinkyu Lee, James William McGowan, Michael Charles Recchione

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing a active packet bundling in a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) based on a measure of voice concealability of one or more speech packets to be transmitted. Voice concealability is a property of a speech packet which indicates the likelihood that a given speech segment will meet the “quasi-stationary” (QS) behavior assumed by conventional Packet Loss Concealment (PLC) algorithms used to compensate for transmission loss of speech packets. By ensuring that only well-concealed frames are delayed for bundling, it is more likely that the receiver will run the PLC algorithm when it is most effective (i.e., when it is likely to perform well at reconstructing the missing speech frame), rather than when it is more likely to be ineffective. This allows for a reduction in bandwidth while minimizing any potential negative impact on quality.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method for performing packet bundling of voice frames comprised in a sequence of voice frames to be transmitted across a Voice-over IP communications network, the method comprising the steps of:

determining, with use of a processor, whether or not each of a plurality of voice frames comprised in said sequence of voice frames is concealable, said determination being made, based on a quantitative analysis of speech waveform energy, for each of said plurality of voice frames independently with respect to the other voice frames of said plurality of voice frames in said sequence, wherein the quantitative analysis includes counting a number of bumps in the speech waveform energy;
assigning a score to each of said plurality of voice frames based on the quantitative analysis;
bundling, with use of the processor, a given one of said voice frames together with at least one subsequent voice frame in said sequence of voice frames when the score of the given one of said voice frames has been determined to satisfy a threshold;
and
transmitting, with use of a transmitter, said bundled voice frames together across said communications network as a single packet;
and
transmitting, with use of a transmitter, one or more other ones of said plurality of voice frames across said communications network without bundling said other voice frames together with subsequent voice frames, when the scores of said other voice frames have been determined not to satisfy a threshold.

4 more elements

An apparatus for performing packet bundling of voice frames comprised in a sequence of voice frames to be transmitted across a Voice-over IP communications network, the apparatus comprising:

a processor which determines whether or not each of a plurality of voice frames comprised in said sequence of voice frames is concealable, said determination being made, based on a quantitative analysis of speech waveform energy, for each of said plurality of voice frames independently with respect to the other voice frames of said plurality of voice frames in said sequence, wherein the quantitative analysis includes counting a number of bumps in the speech waveform energy, which assigns a score to each of said plurality of voice frames based on the quantitative analysis, and which bundles a given one of said voice frames together with at least one subsequent voice frame in said sequence of voice frames when the score of the given one of said voice frames has been determined to satisfy a threshold;
and
a transmitter which transmits said bundled voice frames together across said communications network as a single packet, and which transmits one or more other ones of said plurality of voice frames across said communications network without bundling said other voice frames together with subsequent voice frames, when the scores of said other voice frames have been determined not to satisfy a threshold.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable program code for performing packet bundling of voice frames comprised in a sequence of voice frames to be transmitted across a Voice-over IP communications network, the executable program code configured to:

determine whether or not each of a plurality of voice frames comprised in said sequence of voice frames is concealable, said determination being made, based on a quantitative analysis of speech waveform energy, for each of said plurality of voice frames independently with respect to the other voice frames of said plurality of voice frames in said sequence, wherein the quantitative analysis includes counting a number of bumps in the speech waveform energy;
assign a score to each of said plurality of voice frames based on the quantitative analysis;
and
bundle a given one of said voice frames together with at least one subsequent voice frame in said sequence of voice frames when the score of the given one of said voice frames has been determined to satisfy a threshold,
wherein said bundled voice frames are configured to be transmitted together across said communications network as a single packet and wherein one or more other ones of said plurality of voice frames are configured to be transmitted across said communications network without bundling said other voice frames together with subsequent voice frames, when the scores of said other voice frames have been determined not to satisfy a threshold.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.