Pseudo-analog speech transmission in mobile radio communication systems

A low-complexity pseudo-analog speech transmission scheme is proposed for portable communications. It uses a speech coder based on adaptive differential pulse code modulation (ADPCM) in combination with a multilevel digital modulation technique such as M-ary DPSK or M-ary FSK and features low quantization noise, bandwidth efficiency, and robustness to transmission errors. A nonsymmetric M -ary DPSK scheme called skewed M-ary DPSK is proposed to enhance the noisy channel performance. Comparison to conventional analog FM and a digital speech transmission scheme using adaptive predictive coding and forward error correction (FEC) based on convolutional coding shows that the pseudo-analog system has the best objective signal-to-noise ratio performance under most channel conditions. Informal subjective evaluations rate the digital system superior to the pseudo-analog scheme for bad channels and conversely for good channels. It is concluded that the pseudo-analog system can be designed with low delay and high speech quality for good channels with high spectral efficiency