Speech transmission and audio characteristics of communication terminals for fixed circuit-switched, mobile and packet-switched Internet protocol (IP) networks

(Continuation of Question 3/12 - Speech transmission characteristics of communication terminals for fixed circuit-switched, mobile and packet-switched (IP) networks)

Motivation
With the wide use and fast evolution of communication terminals, the work defined in this Question remains an important area for international telecommunication standardization. On the one hand, there are numerous handsets, headsets and hands-free terminals with traditional appearance already in market or under design, terminals with new physical form and accessories that can be used with terminals providing speech communication functionality are emerging. On the other hand, more sophisticated signal processing and speech enhancement techniques are applied and widely spread in terminal design. How to evaluate these new terminals effectively is still a challenge and should be considered adequately in the future. Furthermore, the application of new test signals, such as real speech signals, are deemed to bring about huge changes on existing terminal measurement methods.

Currently most of the terminals connecting to fixed/mobile circuit-switched or packet-switched networks are still only capable of supporting narrowband or wideband speech communication. However with the development and deployment of super-wideband and fullband speech codecs, services and terminals covering the entire speech frequency range will be more widely available. The transmission characteristics and objective measurement methods for those terminals need to be considered, so as to guarantee better speech communication quality and user experience.

Speech and audio characteristics and objective measurement methods for multimedia terminals and accessories used with terminals, which are designed not purely for speech communication but keep speech communication as an important functionality, for example, videotel, audio-visual terminal, and personal wearable devices, also require further research and development.

The following Recommendations/Supplements, in force at the time of approval of this Question, fall under its responsibility:
P.300, P.310, P.311, P.313, P.341, P.342, P.350, P.370, P.381, P.382, P Suppl. 10, P Suppl. 16

Question
Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:

• What enhancement or new Recommendation needs to be developed to define headset and hands-free transmission characteristics for mobile and cordless terminals?
• What enhancements to existing Recommendations are needed to specify the performances of noise reduction and speech enhancement within terminals?
• What speech transmission and audio characteristics and measurement methods are needed for cordless and mobile terminals using multiple codecs in narrowband and other wider band applications?
• What speech transmission and audio characteristics are needed for multimedia terminals?
• What speech transmission and audio characteristics are needed for accessories used with terminals?
• What new test methods and signals, such as ones defined in P.501 and P.502, are appropriate for testing speech transmission and audio characteristics of terminal equipment?
• How to use the test signals newly developed in P.501 and measurement methods developed in P.502 to enhance existing Recommendations?
• What speech transmission and audio characteristics and test methods are particularly needed for VoIP terminals, softphones running on PC or OTT speech communication applications on mobile terminals?
• What speech transmission and audio characteristics and measurement methods are needed for terminals using new access techniques (e.g. power line access, WLAN, etc.)?
• What other changes and/or improvements can be done for the existing Recommendations (P.300, P.310, P.311, P.313, P.340, P.341, P.342, P.350, P.370, P.381, P.382)?

Tasks
Tasks include, but are not limited to:

• adaptation of speech transmissions and audio characteristics for handset, headset and hands-free terminals, to cover the performance of terminals in super-wideband and fullband mode;
• adaptation of current test methods for terminals according to the application of new test signals.
• Improve existing specifications to handle more sophisticated speech enhancement applied in terminals;
• specify and improve the requirement and test methods at analogue headset interfaces to further increase the QoE and compatibility between headset/headphone and mobile terminals;
• define the requirement and test methods at digital headset interface of mobile terminals to increase the QoE when using digital headsets on mobile terminals;
• investigate the particular requirements and test methods for wearable devices comparing to traditional hands-free terminals;
• investigate the particular requirements and test methods for other accessories to be used with terminal for speech communication or speech based services;
• define the test methods for over-the-top (OTT) applications that support speech conversation running on mobile terminals.

An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the SG12 work programme
http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/workprog/wp_search.aspx?q=3/12

Relationships

Recommendations

• P.330, P.340, P.501, P.502, P.1010, G.131, P.1100, P.1110, P.1130, P.1140, P.58, P.581

Questions

• 4/12, 5/12, 6/12, 10/12, 13/12

Study Groups

• ITU-T SG15, SG16

Standardization bodies

• IEEE, TIA, 3GPP SA4, ETSI TC STQ, 3GPP2, Bluetooth SIG