METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SPEECH QUALITY ASSESSMENT IN A CELLULAR COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

摘要

The invention relates to an apparatus and method for speech quality assessment in a cellular communication system. The apparatus (113) comprises a second receiver (117) which receives encoded speech data for a speech segment from a remote speech source over an air interface voice channel (111) of the cellular communication system. The apparatus (113) further comprises a first receiver (115) which receives a reference speech sample corresponding to the speech segment from a remote reference speech sample source. The first and second receivers (115, 117) are coupled to a speech processor (119) which determines a speech quality characteristic by comparison of the reference speech sample and the encoded speech data. The encoded voice data may be transmitted over an air interface voice channel (111) whereas the reference sample may be transmitted over a first air interface channel (105) which specifically may be a data channel having a very low bit error rate. The invention may allow an effective, flexible and distributed speech assessment.