Performance of LSF vector quantizers for VSELP coders in noisy channels

Abstract

AbstractEfficient quantization of synthesis filter coefficients for CELP (Code Excited Linear Prediction) coders is essential to achieve high quality speech at low rates. Three vector quantizers with good potential for utilization in low rate coders are studied. Each of them is implemented inside the structure of the VSELP (Vector Sum Excited Linear Prediction) coder, an important member in the class of CELP coders. These three vector quantizers are used to encode LSF (Line Spectral Frequency) parameters and are compared in terms of robustness to channel errors, complexity and quality of synthesized speech. Performance of synthesized speech is evaluated considering the objective measure of frequency weighted signal to noise ratio and subjective results obtained from listening tests. With the purpose of improving the robustness to channel errors, the application of simulated annealing to assign binary indices to the output levels of the quantizer is also investigated. A split vector quantization scheme which employs interframe prediction has shown to be an attractive approach to encode the synthesis filter parameters. It provides a performance comparable to the IS‐54 scheme and uses 10 bits less for each LSF frame.