Voice and Audio Compression for Wireless Communications

Voice communications remains the most important facet of mobile radio services, which may be delivered over conventional fixed links, the Internet or wireless channels. This all-encompassing volume reports on the entire 50-year history of voice compression, on recent audio compression techniques and the protection as well as transmission of these signals in hostile wireless propagation environments.

Audio and Voice Compression for Wireless and Wireline Communications, Second Edition is divided into four parts with Part I covering the basics, while Part II outlines the design of analysis-by-synthesis coding, including a 100-page chapter on virtually all existing standardised speech codecs.  The focus of Part III is on wideband and audio coding as well as transmission. Finally, Part IV concludes the book with a range of very low rate encoding techniques, scanning a range of research-oriented topics.

• Fully updated and revised second edition of “Voice Compression and Communications”, expanded to cover Audio features
• Includes two new chapters, on narrowband and wideband AMR coding, and MPEG audio coding
• Addresses the new developments in the field of wideband speech and audio compression
• Covers compression, error resilience and error correction coding, as well as transmission aspects, including cutting-edge turbo transceivers
• Presents both the historic and current view of speech compression and communications.

Covering fundamental concepts in a non-mathematical way before moving to detailed discussions of theoretical principles, future concepts and solutions to various specific wireless voice communication problems, this book will appeal to both advanced readers and those with a background knowledge of signal processing and communications. 

Lajos Hanzo has been with the Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK, since 1986 where he holds the Chair in Telecommunications. He received his degree in electronics in 1976 and his doctorate in 1983. During his career in telecommunications he has held various research and academic posts in Hungary, Germany and the UK. Lajos is a Fellow of the IEEE and the IEE as well as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He has co-authored 11 books on mobile radio communications, published over 500 research papers and been awarded a number of distinctions.

Clare Somerville received M.Eng and Ph.D degrees in Electronic Engineering in 1995 and 1999, respectively, from the University of Southampton. From 1995 to 1998 she performed research into low bit rate speech coders for wireless communications. Following a spell of research with the Global Wireless Systems Research department, Bell Laboratories, Swindon, U.K, she moved to PicoChip in Bath, UK. Her current research involves real-time services over wireless networks with a packet air interface.

Jason Woodard received an MA in Physics from the University of Oxford in 1991, then an MSc in Electronics and a PhD in Speech Coding from the University of Southampton in 1992 and 1995 respectively. From 1995 to 1998 he worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, researching error correction coding, especially turbo codes. In 1998 he joined the Wireless Technology Practice at PA Consulting Group in Cambridge. At the start of 1999 he was transferred from PA to UbiNetics Ltd, where he is responsible for the development and implementation of bit rate processing algorithms, including turbo codes, for 3rd Generation mobile communications products.