Silence detection for multimedia communication

Silence detection and removal is an essential building block of any multimedia video conferenc-ing system. It reduces the bandwidth requirements of the underlying network transport service and helps to maintain an acceptable end-to-end delay for audio. We analyze the requirements for a silence detection algorithm hosted on a multimedia communication system, and propose a novel low complexity algorithm operating in the non-linear-law domain. After discussing the constraints which are imposed by the architecture of the system hardware (computer, packet-based network), we show that several recently proposed silence detection algorithms fail to meet all of these constraints. A new approach is then introduced, based on the small-and large-signal behavior of the speech waveform in the-law domain. The new algorithm is compared with a recent design that meets several of our requirements; experimental results indicate that it performs signiicantly better in the particular environment at hand.