Estimation of digital low-rate encoded voice link performance from instrumental measurements

The correlation between subjective and instrumental assessments of low-rate digital voice coder transparency to voice and nonvoice signals is quantified. The instrumental, or objective, performance and subjective voice quality of eight low-rate digital voice processors were compared by correlating the results obtained from a set of multilingual subjective assessments with the results obtained from a series of instrumental measurements employing readily available, analog interface-based techniques. The results show that meaningful information on link performance with voice signals can be obtained over a wide range of engineered link quality using instrumental technology employing nonvoice signals