A Technique for Adaptive Voice Flow Control in Integrated Packet Networks

Integrated packet-switched networks have potential for providing improved performance by dynamically sharing transmission bandwidths between various users and user types, but new flow control methods are needed to deal with packetized voice traffic. This paper describes a packet voice flow control concept based on embedded speech coding. Results are presented from a computer simulation study of the technique in the context of a multilink wideband packet speech network. Several control methodologies are described, leading to an end-to end feedback approach that achieves stable operation and efficient utilization of network resources by adaptively matching transmitted voice bit rates to prevailing network conditions. Issues in the design of embedded speech coding algorithms are reviewed and a candidate structure based on channel vocoding principles is presented, along with the subjective results of some preliminary listening tests