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Perceived Speech Quality Prediction for VoIP Networks

This study explores predicting perceived speech quality in VoIP networks using Neural Network methods, considering the impact of losses and talkers on speech quality. The research delves into objective measurement algorithms like PESQ, addressing the need for speech quality prediction for online monitoring and QoS control. The development of a robust NN model based on PESQ parameter extraction is emphasized. Detailed analysis on the impact of loss, talker variations, and codec types is presented, highlighting the importance of factors affecting perceived speech quality in VoIP applications.

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Perceived Speech Quality Prediction for VoIP Networks

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  1. Perceived Speech Quality Prediction for VoIP Networks Lingfen Sun Emmanuel Ifeachor

  2. Outline • Introduction • Simulation system • Perceived speech quality analysis • Impact of loss on speech quality • Impact of talkers on speech quality • Perceived speech quality prediction using Neural Network (NN) method • Conclusions and future work

  3. Introduction • Speech quality Measurement • Subjective method (Mean Opinion Score -- MOS) • Objective methods • Intrusive methods (e.g. ITU P.862 PESQ) • Nonintrusive methods (e.g. E-model, NN model) • Why do we need to predict speech quality? • For online monitoring VoIP call • For Quality of Service (QoS) control for VoIP applications

  4. How to predict speech quality? • E-model • All impairments are mapped to R-scale (R MOS) • Principle: "Psychological factors on the psychological scale are additive" • Static and computational model. • NN-model • To learn the non-linear relationships between network impairments and perceived speech quality • To adapt to dynamicIP network conditions.

  5. Previous work • NN databases are based on subjective test only • As subjective test is time consuming, costly and stringent, available databases are limited and cannot cover all the possible scenarios • Only a limited number of subjects attended MOS tests • Limited number of codecs • Talker dependency has not been considered.

  6. Main objectives of work • To undertake a fundamental investigation of the impact of packet loss on perceived speech quality using an objectivemeasurement algorithm (e.g. PESQ) • To investigate the impact of different talkers on perceived speech quality • To develop a robust NN model for speech quality prediction based on PESQ.

  7. parameter extraction NN model Predicted MOS Simulation system structure quality measure (PESQ) Measured MOS Simulated VoIP system loss simulator encoder decoder Degraded speech Reference speech • Reference speech is from a speech database

  8. p 1 - p 0 q 1 1 - q Loss No-loss Loss Simulator 2 state Gilbert Model to simulate packet loss characteristics • Network packet loss + late arrival loss due to jitter • Unconditional loss probability (ulp, or average loss rate), ulp = p / (p + 1 – q) • Conditional loss probability (clp), clp = q to reflect burst loss features

  9. Impact of loss on speech quality • How do packet loss and loss burstiness affect speech quality? • How does packet size affect speech quality? • How does codec affect speech quality? Using PESQ to calculate perceived MOS score  Average over 300 different random "seeds" to reduce the impact from different loss locations

  10. Bursty loss analysis (G.729)

  11. Bursty loss analysis (G.723.1)

  12. Bursty loss effect • clp has an obvious impact on the perceived speech quality even for the same average loss rate (ulp) • When burst loss increases (clp increasing), the MOS score decreases and the variation of the MOS score also increases. Identify ulp and clp as input parameters related to loss for NN analysis

  13. Impact of packet size (G.729)

  14. Impact of packet size (G.723.1)

  15. Impact of packet size on quality • Packet size has, in general, no obvious influence on speech quality for a given loss rate. • Variation in speech quality for the same network loss rate depends on packet size and codec. • Variation in quality due to loss location is themainobstacle in the prediction of speech quality To consider loss only during active talkspurt frames (not for silence frames or SID frames).

  16. Impact of talker on speech quality • To investigate whether difference in talker (male or female) has an effect on perceived speech quality • TIMIT data set and ITU data set are used for investigation

  17. Talker Dependency • For 3 male and 3 female samples

  18. Talker Dependency (cont.) • For 6 mixed male and female samples

  19. Impact of talker on MOS • Impact of different talkers on perceived speech quality appears to depend mainly on the gender of the talker (male or female). • The quality for the female talker tends to be worse than that of the male talker for the same network impairments. Identify gender (male and female) as one of the input parameters for NN analysis.

  20. Quality prediction based on NN • Developed a neural network model (using Stuttgart Neural Network Simulator). • Identified four variables as inputs to NN • Codec type (G.729, G.723.1 and AMR) • Gender (male and female) • Unconditional loss probability ulp (VAD) • Conditional loss probability clp(VAD) • One output (MOS)

  21. 1 1 Gender 2 2 Codec type 1 3 MOS 3 ulp(VAD) 4 4 clp(VAD) 5 NN structure (for a 4-5-1 net) • a three-layer, feed-forward, neural network architecture • standard Backpropagation learning algorithm

  22. NN database generation • Codec: G.729, G.723.1 (6.3Kb/s), AMR (12.2Kb/s) • Gender: Male and female • ulp : 0, 10, 20, 30 and 40% • clp : 10, 50 and 90% • Packet size: 1 to 5 A total of 362 samples (patterns) were generated based on PESQ. 70% were chosen as the training set and 30% as the test dataset.

  23. NN training process Measured MOS Quality measure (PESQ) Simulated VoIP system Reference speech + Degraded speech  Backprop - Network, Codec & Speech parameters Predicted MOS

  24. Predicted MOS vs Measured MOS Train: = 0.967, r = 0.12 Test: = 0.952, r = 0.15

  25. Validation of the NN model • Generated a validation dataset from other talkers and different network loss conditions (total 210 samples) • Obtained = 0.946, r = 0.19 for the validation dataset using a trained 4-5-1 neural network. This suggested that the neural network model works well for speech quality prediction in general.

  26. Conclusions • Investigated the impact of packet loss, codec and talker on perceived speech quality based on PESQ • The loss pattern, loss burstiness and the gender of the talker have an impact on speech quality. • Packet size has, in general, no obvious influence on speech quality, but the deviation in speech quality depends on packet size and codec. • Based on codec, bursty loss rate and gender of the talker, a NN model was developed successfully for speech quality prediction.

  27. Future work • Extended to conversational speech quality prediction to cater for the impact from delay. • Use real VoIP trace data instead of generated data from Gilbert loss model. • Use more robust neural networks. • Application to QoS Control in VoIP systems.

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