A Methodology for speech quality assessment in wireless networks

Abstract

Performance factors are important in today's* competitive telecommunications market where price differentials have been minimized. An important aspect of service performance is speech quality. This paper illustrates the theoretical foundation of Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ), the most recent ITU-T standard for objective assessment of speech quality in telecommunication networks, and a methodology for its implementation in wireless networks. Further, the development of the PESQ algorithm according to the standard is presented with the methodology of obtaining the PESQ scores which measure the perceived speech quality of the telecommunication network under test. Finally, the results obtained with the developed measurement setup are discussed. How the results can be used to analyse the impact of various factors on the speech quality of wireless networks is explained. The results were also used to examine the correlation between channel conditions (e.g. network load and signal strength) and the perceived speech quality.