Dynamic vocoder selection for storing and forwarding voice signals
First Claim
1. A voice storage and forwarding device, comprising:
- an input for receiving a digital signal that conveys audio information;
a group of vocoders, each vocoder including an encoder stage capable of compressing the digital signal that conveys audio information in at least one data frame;
a switch capable of acquiring a plurality of vocoder selection positions, in each vocoder selection position said switch directing the digital signal that conveys audio information received at said input to a selected one of said vocoders of said group of vocoders;
a tagging unit capable of generating a vocoder type designator for association with a data frame issued by the encoder stage of a given vocoder of said group of vocoders, said vocoder type designator capable of uniquely identifying the given vocoder amongst the vocoders in said group of vocoders;
a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoders, said storage medium capable to store data that conveys audio information issued by a vocoder from said group of vocoders and transmit stored data that conveys audio information toward a selected one of said vocoders.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
In recent years, the telecommunications industry has witnessed the proliferation of a variety of digital vocoders in order to meet bandwidth demands of different wireline and wireless communication systems. The rapid growth in the diversity of networks and the number of users of such networks is increasing the number of instances where two vocoders are placed in tandem to serve a single connection. Such arrangements of low bit-rate codecs can degrade the quality of the transmitted speech. To overcome this problem in the specific situation involving store-and-forward systems (e.g. voicemail), the invention provides a novel method and apparatus including a plurality of different vocoders that can be selectively invoked to process the voice signal so as to reduce signal degradation. Also, the apparatus has the capability to bypass the vocoder bank when exchanging data with a remote signal processor capable of accepting data frames in compressed format.
-
Citations
48 Claims
-
1. A voice storage and forwarding device, comprising:
-
an input for receiving a digital signal that conveys audio information;
a group of vocoders, each vocoder including an encoder stage capable of compressing the digital signal that conveys audio information in at least one data frame;
a switch capable of acquiring a plurality of vocoder selection positions, in each vocoder selection position said switch directing the digital signal that conveys audio information received at said input to a selected one of said vocoders of said group of vocoders;
a tagging unit capable of generating a vocoder type designator for association with a data frame issued by the encoder stage of a given vocoder of said group of vocoders, said vocoder type designator capable of uniquely identifying the given vocoder amongst the vocoders in said group of vocoders;
a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoders, said storage medium capable to store data that conveys audio information issued by a vocoder from said group of vocoders and transmit stored data that conveys audio information toward a selected one of said vocoders. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A communication system, comprising:
-
a database storing a plurality of vocoder type identifiers;
a voice storage and forwarding device;
a data transmission pathway between said database and said voice storage and forwarding device, said voice storage and forwarding device including;
a) an input for receiving a digital signal that conveys audio information;
b) a group of vocoders, each vocoder including an encoder stage capable of compressing the digital signal that conveys audio information in at least one data frame;
c) a switch capable of acquiring a plurality of vocoder selection positions, in each vocoder selection position said switch directing the digital signal that conveys audio information received at said input to a selected one of said vocoders of said group of vocoders, said switch being responsive to a vocoder type identifier received from said database over said data transmission pathway to acquire a vocoder selection position;
d) a tagging unit capable of generating a vocoder type designator for association with a data frame issued by the encoder stage of a given vocoder of said group of vocoders, said vocoder type designator capable of uniquely identifying the given vocoder amongst the vocoders in said group of vocoders;
e) a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoders, said storage medium capable to store data that conveys audio information issued by a vocoder from said group of vocoders and transmit stored data that conveys audio information toward a selected one of said vocoders. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A voice storage and forwarding device, comprising:
-
an input for receiving an audio data signal that conveys speech sound information, the audio data signal being in either one of a first format and a second format;
at least one vocoder;
a switch capable of acquiring at least two operative positions, namely a vocoder selection position and a bypass position, in said vocoder selection position said switch directing the audio data signal received at said input in the first format to said vocoder for conversion of the audio data signal from the first format to the second format;
a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoder and with said switch, said storage medium capable to store audio data signals in the second format issued by said vocoder and transmit stored audio data signals in the second format toward said vocoder;
in said bypass position said switch bypassing said vocoder and directing the audio data signal received at said input in the second format toward said storage medium. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
a group of vocoders;
a switch capable of acquiring a plurality of vocoder selection positions, in each vocoder selection position said switch directing the digital signal that conveys audio information received at said input to a selected one of said vocoders of said group of vocoders.
-
-
26. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 25, wherein each vocoder includes an encoder stage capable of compressing the digital signal that conveys audio information in at least one data frame including an excitation segment and a coefficients segment.
-
27. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 26, wherein the encoder stage of each vocoder is capable of compressing the audio information in at least one data frame of a format different from a format of a data frame issued by any other vocoder of said group of vocoders.
-
28. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 25, comprising a tagging means capable of generating a vocoder type designate or for association with a data frame issued by the encoder stage of a given vocoder of said group of vocoders, said vocoder type designator capable of uniquely identifying the given vocoder amongst the vocoders in said group of vocoders.
-
29. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 28, wherein said storage medium is capable of forwarding a data frame stored on said storage medium to a selected vocoder from said group of vocoders.
-
30. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 29, wherein said switch is responsive to a vocoder type designator associated to a data frame stored on said storage medium to acquire a vocoder selector position to select a vocoder in said group of vocoders to which the data frame stored on said storage medium will be forwarded.
-
31. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 30, wherein each vocoder from said group of vocoders includes a decoder stage, a data frame issued by said storage medium and forwarded to the decoder stage of a selected vocoder being decompressed by the decoder stage of the selected vocoder.
-
32. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 31, wherein said switch is responsive to control information generated in a course of a given message recording transaction, to acquire a vocoder selector position indicated by the control information.
-
33. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 18, wherein said second format is a compressed version of the audio data signal in the first format.
-
34. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 18, wherein said second format is an encoded version of the audio data signal in the first format.
-
35. A voice storage and forwarding device as defined in claim 18, wherein when in said first format, the audio data signal is in PCM format.
-
36. A communication system, comprising:
-
a base station or base station controller including a digital signal processor;
a voice storage and forwarding device;
a data transmission pathway between said base station and said voice storage and forwarding device, said voice storage and forwarding device including;
a) an input for receiving an audio data signal that conveys speech sound information, the audio data signal being in either one of a first format and a second format;
b) at least one vocoder;
c) a switch capable of acquiring at least two operative positions, namely a vocoder selection position and a bypass position, in said vocoder selection position said switch directing the audio data signal received at said input in the first format to said vocoder for conversion of the audio data signal from the first format to the second format;
d) a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoder and with said switch, said storage medium capable to store audio data signals in the second format issued by said vocoder and transmit stored audio data signals in the second format toward said vocoder;
e) in said bypass position said switch bypassing said vocoder and directing the audio data signal received at said input in the second format toward said storage medium;
f) said switch operative to acquire said bypass position in response to a control message received from said digital signal processor over said data transmission pathway. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
-
-
44. A method for storing audio data containing speech sound information, the audio data being in either one of a first format and a second format, said method comprising the steps of:
-
providing a vocoder;
providing a switch capable of acquiring either one of a vocoder selection position and a bypass position, in said vocoder selection position said switch directing audio data in the first format to said vocoder for conversion of the audio data from the first format to a second format;
providing a storage medium in a data communicative relationship with said vocoder, said storage medium capable to store audio data in the second format issued by said vocoder;
in said bypass position said switch bypassing said vocoder and directing audio data in the second format toward said storage medium;
setting said switch to a selected one of the vocoder selection position and the bypass position to permit transfer of audio data to said storage device. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48)
-
Specification