Benefits of perceptual speech quality metrics in modern cellular systems

Abstract

Advanced algorithms have become available in recent years that can reliably measure the speech quality as ‘perceived’ by humans. The benefits of applying the perceptual quality measures obtained using these algorithms in the outer loop power control (OLPC) of the Third Generation Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (3G UMTS) are studied. It is shown that 20% capacity improvement compared to the use of conventional measures can be achieved, while an adequate and uniform speech quality is maintained.