METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THE USE OF DISCONTINUOUS TRANSMISSION IN A CELLULAR TELEPHONE

摘要

A method and apparatus for controlling the use of discontinuous transmission in a cellular telephone (100). The preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a voice activity detector (106) for detecting the presence or absence of speech (Step 300) and an energy detector (120) for measuring the energy level (Step 311) of sound input (Step 300) to a microphone (110) of a cellular telephone (100) during the absence of speech. The present invention also includes a comparator (150) for comparing the measured noise energy level against a threshold value (Step 330). The determination as to the presence or absence of speech and the output of the comparator are provided to a controller (140). The controller enables discontinuous transmission when the energy level detected during the absence of speech is less than or equal to the threshold value (Step 320) and disables discontinuous transmission when the measured energy level exceeds the threshold value (Step 320).