The adaptive multirate wideband speech codec: system characteristics, quality advances, and deployment strategies

Wideband speech is the major differentiation and attraction of third-generation network services in both the circuit and packet switched domain. Increased audio bandwidth introduces a significant leap in perceived quality of service compared to currently utilized narrowband telephony in second-generation mobile communications and the PSTN. The adaptive multirate wideband (AMR-WB) speech codec is the service enabler for improved user experience. It is an established 3GPP and ITU-T wideband speech codec standard and represents the state-of-the-art in speech quality as well as robustness in error prone radio channels. It is also the first codec algorithm standardized for wideband speech for mobile communications