Speech quality estimation using packet loss effects in CELP-type speech coders

This paper proposes an objective quality assessment method for voice communication systems using packet loss information. Based on the fact that the effect of packet loss to perceptual quality varies depending on the signal characteristics of lost packets, different weighting factors are applied to predicting overall quality. Considering the key paradigm of low bit rate speech coders such as parameter prediction in consecutive frames, we also include the effect of neighborhood frames. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, we apply it into two well-known speech codecs, G.729 and AMR-NB. Simulation results with a large speech database verify the superiority of the proposed algorithm. The normalized correlation between degraded listening quality (LQ) scale of the PESQ and the proposed method is 0.9121 at G.729A and 0.9289 at AMR codec based on SMV classification of input signal and 0.8505 at G.729A and 0.8586 at AMR codec based on SMV classification of decoded signal.