Quality Enhancement of Packet Audio with Time-Scale Modification

In traditional packet voice or the emerging 2.5G and 3G wireless data services, smooth and timely delivery of audio is an essential requirement in Quality of Service (QoS) provision. It has been shown in our previous work that, by adapting time-scale modification to audio signals, an adaptive play-out algorithm can be designed to minimize packet dropping at the receiver end. By stretching the audio frame duration up and down, the proposed algorithm could adapt quickly to accommodate fluctuating delays including delay spikes. In this paper, we will address the packet audio QoS with emphasis on end-to-end delay, packet loss, and delay jitter. The characteristics of delay and loss will be discussed. Adaptive playback will enhance the audio quality by adapting to the transmission delay jitter and delay spike. Coupled with Forward Error Correction (FEC) schemes, the proposed delay and loss concealment algorithm achieves less overall application loss rate without sacrificing on the average end-to-end delay. The optimal solution of such algorithms will be discussed. We also investigate the stretching-ratio transition effect on perceived audio quality by measuring the objective Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) Mean Opinion Score (MOS).