SIST ES 201 377-2 V1.4.1:2010

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ES 201 377-2 V1.4.1:2010
01-februar-2010
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Speech and multimediaTransmission Quality (STQ) - Specification and measurement of

speech transmission quality - Part 2: Mouth-to-ear speech transmission quality including

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

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Intellectual Property Rights ................................................................................................................................ 5

Foreword ............................................................................................................................................................. 5

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

1 Scope ........................................................................................................................................................ 6

2 References ................................................................................................................................................ 6

2.1 Normative references ......................................................................................................................................... 7

2.2 Informative references ........................................................................................................................................ 9

3 Definitions and abbreviations ................................................................................................................... 9

3.1 Definitions .......................................................................................................................................................... 9

3.2 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................... 11

4 General considerations for end-to-end speech quality evaluations ........................................................ 12

5 Test configurations ................................................................................................................................. 16

5.1 Test setup for terminals .................................................................................................................................... 16

5.1.1 Setup for handset terminals ......................................................................................................................... 17

5.1.2 Setup for headset terminals ......................................................................................................................... 17

5.1.3 Setup for hands-free type terminals and loudspeaking terminals................................................................ 18

5.1.4 Position and calibration of HATS ............................................................................................................... 18

5.2 Setup of the electrical interfaces ....................................................................................................................... 18

5.3 Test signals ....................................................................................................................................................... 19

5.4 Accuracy of test equipment .............................................................................................................................. 19

6 Test conditions ....................................................................................................................................... 20

6.1 Acoustic environment ....................................................................................................................................... 20

6.2 Network conditions, general ............................................................................................................................. 20

6.2.1 Network conditions, PSTN ......................................................................................................................... 21

6.2.2 Network conditions, packet based transmission ......................................................................................... 21

6.2.3 Network conditions, GSM mobile and 3G mobile ...................................................................................... 22

6.2.3.1 Speech levels ......................................................................................................................................... 25

6.2.3.2 Echo control .......................................................................................................................................... 25

6.2.3.3 Radio network and radio network features ............................................................................................ 26

7 Measurement of "standard" parameters .................................................................................................. 28

7.1 Sending frequency response ............................................................................................................................. 29

7.2 Receiving frequency response .......................................................................................................................... 29

7.3 Overall frequency response .............................................................................................................................. 29

7.4 Sending (and connection) loudness rating ........................................................................................................ 30

7.5 Receiving (and connection) loudness rating ..................................................................................................... 30

7.6 Overall loudness rating ..................................................................................................................................... 31

7.7 Sidetone masking rating ................................................................................................................................... 32

7.8 Listener sidetone .............................................................................................................................................. 32

7.9 Measurement and calculation of the value of the D-factor (DelSM) ................................................................ 33

7.10 Delay ................................................................................................................................................................ 34

7.10.1 Delay in sending direction .......................................................................................................................... 34

7.10.2 Delay in receiving direction ........................................................................................................................ 34

7.10.3 Overall delay ............................................................................................................................................... 35

7.11 Terminal coupling loss ..................................................................................................................................... 35

7.12 Talker echo loudness rating .............................................................................................................................. 36

7.13 Weighted echo path loss ................................................................................................................................... 37

7.14 Distortion .......................................................................................................................................................... 37

7.14.1 Distortion in sending ................................................................................................................................... 37

7.14.2 Distortion in receiving ................................................................................................................................ 38

7.14.3 Overall distortion ........................................................................................................................................ 39

7.15 Sensitivity against out-of-band signals in sending ........................................................................................... 40

7.16 Spurious out-of-band signals in receiving ........................................................................................................ 41

8 Advanced measurement procedures, taking into account the conversational situation.......................... 42

8.1 Measurement setup for objective tests.............................................................................................................. 43

8.2 Practical realization of test signals ................................................................................................................... 43

8.3 Quality of background noise transmission ....................................................................................................... 43

8.3.1 Test setup for background noise transmission tests .................................................................................... 44

8.3.2 Background noise transmission with far end speech .................................................................................. 44

8.3.3 Background noise transmission with near end speech ................................................................................ 45

8.3.4 Speech transmission quality with near end background noise .................................................................... 46

8.4 Double talk performance .................................................................................................................................. 47

8.5 Switching characteristics .................................................................................................................................. 48

8.6 Level adjustments by companding or AGC ..................................................................................................... 51

8.7 Additional echo disturbances ........................................................................................................................... 52

8.8 Speech sound quality ........................................................................................................................................ 52

Annex A (informative): Bibliography ................................................................................................... 54

History .............................................................................................................................................................. 55

IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information

pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found

in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in

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can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web

This ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Speech and multimedia Transmission

The present document provides technical requirements for assessing the conversational speech quality performance

The present document is part 2 of a multi-part deliverable covering the specification and measurement of speech

EG 202 377-1: "Introduction to objective comparison measurement methods for one-way speech quality across

EG 202 377-3: "Non-intrusive objective measurement methods applicable to networks and links with classes of

Various standards within ETSI, ITU, TIA and other standardization organizations describe performance requirements

for different types of terminals, networks and network components. In each standard emphasis is given typically only to

a part of the overall connection. The speech quality perceived by the user however is influenced by any component in

the overall connection. In modern complex network and end-to-end (mouth-to-ear) configurations there is no guarantee

for a sufficient overall performance if only the individual components conform to their relevant standards. Furthermore

many of the existing testing specifications still assume a linear and time invariant behaviour of the components which

due to complex signal processing in most of the modern communication devices can no longer be expected. Only a few

standards exist which describe test procedures and requirements for the interaction of different network components

The present document addresses the mouth-to-ear speech quality taking into account all conversational aspects. An

overview about different network/terminal configurations and their specific impact on speech quality is given. The

present document describes testing procedures and setups for different configurations.

The present document addresses mouth-to-ear (i.e. end-to-end speech quality for 3,1 kHz telephony). It both:

a) summarizes and gives guidance about the main factors that affect speech quality in end-to-end scenarios; and

The test methods can be used both for the complete transmission from mouth-to-ear and also for testing individual

The end-end (mouth-to-ear) test methods specified in the present document are independent of the technology used in

the network and the terminals. However when practical considerations make it necessary to test at electrical interfaces

within or between equipments the present document explains how to handle the most common current technologies.

• terminal and terminal component (e.g. soundcard) developers who wish to evaluate the end-to-end

• network designers who wish to evaluate the end-to-end performance of their networks with typical terminals.

And therefore it gives advice on how networks and representative terminals (respectively) can be selected or simulated

The test methods described allow the evaluation of all conversational situations such as single talk and double talk by

a) all types of terminals, including handsets, headsets and dedicated hands-free arrangements such as are

The present document is not generally suitable for wideband telephony or other forms of wideband communication

although the parametric approach and the measurement procedures for some of the parameters described in the present

References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or

• Non-specific reference may be made only to a complete document or a part thereof and only in the following

- if it is accepted that it will be possible to use all future changes of the referenced document for the

Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at

NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication ETSI cannot guarantee

The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of the present document. For dated

references, only the edition cited applies. For non-specific references, the latest edition of the referenced document

[1] ITU-T Recommendation G.821: "Error performance of an international digital connection

operating at a bit rate below the primary rate and forming part of an Integrated Services Digital

[2] Gierlich, H.W.; Kettler, F., Diedrich, E.: "Speech Quality Evaluation of Hands-Free Telephones

During Double Talk: New Evaluation Methodologies"; EUSIPCO 1998, Proceedings, Vol. II.

[3] Gierlich, H.W. (December 1996): "The auditory perceived quality of hands-free telephones:

Auditory judgements, instrumental measurements and their relationship", Speech Communication

[4] IEC 61260: "Electroacoustics - Octave-band and fractional-octave-band filters".

[7] ITU-T Recommendation G.107: "The E-model, a computational model for use in transmission

[8] ITU-T Recommendation G.111: "Loudness ratings (LRs) in an international connection".

[9] ITU-T Recommendation G.122: "Influence of national systems on stability and talker echo in

[12] ITU-T Recommendation G.712: "Transmission performance characteristics of pulse code

[13] ITU-T Recommendation O.131: "Quantizing distortion measuring equipment using a

[14] ITU-T Recommendation O.132: "Quantizing distortion measuring equipment using a sinusoidal

[15] ITU-T Recommendation P.340: "Transmission characteristics and speech quality parameters of

[19] ITU-T Recommendation P.502: "Objective test methods for speech communication systems using

[23] ITU-T Recommendation P.581: "Use of Head and Torso Simulator (HATS) for hands-free

[24] ITU-T Recommendation P.64: "Determination of sensitivity/frequency characteristics of local

[25] ITU-T Recommendation P.79 and Corrigendum 2 (2001): "Calculation of loudness ratings for

[26] ITU-T Recommendation P.800: "Methods for subjective determination of transmission quality".

[28] ITU-T Recommendation P.830: "Subjective performance assessment of telephone-band and

[29] ITU-T Recommendation P.831: "Subjective performance evaluation of network echo cancellers".

[30] ITU-T Recommendation P.832: "Subjective performance evaluation of hands-free terminals".

[31] ITU-T Recommendation P.862: "Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), an objective

method for end-to-end speech quality assessment of narrow-band telephone networks and speech

[32] ITU-T Recommendation Y.1541: "Network performance objectives for IP-based services".

[33] ITU-T COM12-42 (Federal Republic of Germany, January 1998): "Listening only test results for

[34] TIA/EIA 810-A: "Telecommunications - Telephone Terminal Equipment-Transmission

[36] ITU-T Recommendation G.711: "Pulse code modulation (PCM) of voice frequencies".

[37] ETSI TS 100 961: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Full rate

[38] ETSI EN 300 969: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Half rate

[39] ETSI EN 300 726: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Enhanced Full

[40] ETSI EN 300 903: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM); Transmission

planning aspects of the speech service in the GSM Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) system

[41] ISO 9614 (all parts): "Acoustics - Determination of sound power levels of noise sources using

[42] Inter-Noise'96: "Evaluation of Acoustic-Quality Based on a Relative Approach", K. Genuit: 25th

[43] ITU-T Recommendation G.726: "40, 32, 24, 16 kbit/s Adaptive Differential Pulse Code

[44] ETSI ES 202 737: "Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality (STQ); Transmission

requirements for narrowband VoIP terminals (handset and headset) from a QoS perspective as

[45] ETSI ES 202 738: "Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality (STQ); Transmission

requirements for narrowband VoIP loudspeaking and handsfree terminals from a QoS perspective

[46] ETSI ES 202 739: "Speech and multimediaTransmission Quality (STQ); Transmission

requirements for wideband VoIP terminals (handset and headset) from a QoS perspective as

The following referenced documents are not essential to the use of the present document but they assist the user with

regard to a particular subject area. For non-specific references, the latest version of the referenced document (including

[i.1] ETSI EG 201 377-1: "Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality (STQ); Specification and

measurement of speech transmission quality; Part 1: Introduction to objective comparison

[i.2] ETSI TR 101 110: "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+) (GSM);

Characterisation, test methods and quality assessment for handsfree Mobile Stations (MSs)

[i.3] ETSI EG 201 050: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); Overall

[i.4] ETSI TBR 008: "Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN); Telephony 3,1 kHz teleservice;

[i.5] ETSI TR 102 251: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); Anonymous

[i.6] ETSI EG 202 396-1: "Speech and multimedia Transmission Quality (STQ); Speech quality

performance in the presence of background noise; Part 1: Background noise simulation technique

[i.7] ETSI EG 202 396-3: "Speech Processing, Transmission and Quality Aspects (STQ); Speech

Quality performance in the presence of background noise Part 3: Background noise transmission -

For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions apply:

Acoustic Reference Level (ARL): acoustic level at MRP which results in a -10 dBm0 output at the digital interface

artificial ear: device for the calibration of earphones incorporating an acoustic coupler and a calibrated microphone for

the measurement of the sound pressure and having an overall acoustic impedance similar to that of the median adult

codec: combination of an analogue-to-digital encoder and a digital-to-analogue decoder operating in opposite directions

diffuse field equalization: equalization of the HATS sound pick-up, equalization of the difference, in dB, between the

spectrum level of the acoustic pressure at the ear Drum Reference Point (DRP) and the spectrum level of the acoustic

pressure at the HATS Reference Point (HRP) in a diffuse sound field with the HATS absent (see also ITU-T

Recommendation P.58 [22]) using the reverse nominal curve given in table 3 of ITU-T Recommendation P.58 [22]

ear-Drum Reference Point (DRP): point located at the end of the ear canal, corresponding to the ear-drum position

Ear Reference Point (ERP): virtual point for geometric reference located at the entrance to the listener's ear,

electric power and noise levels: the following electric power and noise level units are used in the present document:

dBm0: The absolute power level at a digital reference point of the same signal that would be measured as

the absolute power level, in dBm, if the reference point was analogue. The absolute power in dBm