Application of a perceptual speech quality metric for link adaptation in wireless systems

In this paper, the use of a new, real-time, perceptual speech quality metric for link adaptation in wireless systems, in general, and power control of global system for mobile communications (GSM), in particular, is investigated. It is shown that, due to better quality estimation of the new perceptual quality metric, efficiency of the link adaptation techniques is improved, thus saving precious system resources. In the example of GSM, for a given speech quality, the use of our perceptual speech quality metric in power control results in significant transmitter power savings (in excess of 2.5 dB) for moderate to high vehicular speeds as compared to when GSM´s conventional link quality metric is used.