Receive-Path Audio Degradation as Transmit Quality Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing telecommunications systems fail to provide effective feedback to users about the quality of their signal transmission, leading to asymmetrical call quality issues, where one party may not realize they are not being heard until it is too late, causing frustration and lost time.
Innovation Solution
Introducing intentional degradation of voice signals in the receive path based on the quality of the transmit path, such as adding noise or crackling, to provide feedback to the speaking party about the quality of their transmission, without affecting their ability to understand the other party, using a data-processing system that generates quality statistics and transmits feedback signals within the telecommunications network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If intentional degradation is added to the receive path to provide feedback about transmit path quality, then the first user receives feedback about call quality, but the audio signal quality for the first user deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary feedback mechanism where degradation characteristics (noise, crackling, distortion) are added to the receive path audio signal to mediate and convey information about transmit path quality. This intermediary degradation serves as a carrier for quality feedback information without directly measuring or analyzing the transmit path.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful effect of audio degradation into a beneficial feedback mechanism. By intentionally adding controlled degradation to the receive path, the system transforms what would normally be a quality impairment into a useful indicator that informs the first user about the actual call quality experienced by the second user.
2Reliability
If explicit repetitions and special words are used in military communication protocol, then call participants can communicate effectively despite poor quality, but the communication becomes cumbersome
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism where the first user receives real-time information about transmit path quality through intentional degradation in the receive path. This feedback allows the user to adjust their communication behavior (speaking clarity, volume, pauses) without needing to use cumbersome explicit repetitions or special words, thereby maintaining reliability while improving ease of operation.
3Measurement precision
If PESQ evaluation device is installed inline to determine MOS score, then call quality can be measured, but the voice channel cannot be used for speech communications during testing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the communication system to perform its own quality assessment function by using the existing audio paths in reverse. Instead of requiring an external evaluation device that blocks communication, the system uses the receive path to carry feedback information about transmit path quality, allowing continuous speech communication while simultaneously providing quality measurement.
4Measurement precision
If ITU standards P.562 and P.563 software is used to analyze audio and give MOS score, then call quality can be assessed without affecting communications, but the system complexity is too high for mass-produced endpoints
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential quality assessment function from complex software analysis systems and implements it through a simpler mechanism. Instead of using full ITU standard software that requires sophisticated audio analysis and MOS scoring algorithms, the system extracts the core need for quality feedback and satisfies it through intentional degradation manipulation in the audio path, significantly reducing device complexity while maintaining assessment capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique applicable to a telecommunications system is disclosed that provides quality-related information in a receive path, in which the information serves as feedback about the call quality that is present in the corresponding transmit path. It is recognized that when a first party on a call hears degradation, he tends to change the way that he speaks or reacts to a second party. Based upon this recognition, the present invention addresses the problem of one-way degradation by providing a feedback signal to the first party, in the form of intentional degradation of the voice signals that he is receiving from the second party. The degradation that is introduced by the disclosed data-processing system is based on the current quality of the voice path from the first party to the second party (i.e., the transmit path), instead of the other way around (i.e., the receive path).