=Paper= {{Paper |id=Vol-3312/paper3 |storemode=property |title=VAD in Speech Coder Based on Wavelet Transform |pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3312/paper3.pdf |volume=Vol-3312 |authors=Oleksandr Tymchenko,Bohdana Havrysh,Orest Khamula,Bohdan Kovalskyi |dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/momlet/TymchenkoHKK22 }} ==VAD in Speech Coder Based on Wavelet Transform== https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3312/paper3.pdf
VAD in Speech Coder Based on Wavelet Transform
Oleksandr Tymchenko 1,2, Bohdana Havrysh 3, Orest Khamula,2 and Bohdan Kovalskyi2
1
  University of Warmia and Mazury, Ochapowskiego str,2, Olsztyn, 10-719, Poland
2
  Ukrainian Academy of Printing, Pidholosko st., 19, Lviv, 79020, Ukraine
3
  Lviv Polytechnic National University, Stepana Bandery Street, 12, Lviv, 79000, Ukraine


                Abstract
                One of the methods of reducing the data flow in packet transmission of speech is to exclude
                those speech packets that do not carry enough information. This leads to the use of the systems
                VoIP (Voice over IP) or voice transmission technologies by IP (Internet Protocol – IP) a new
                type of voice signal encoders – with a variable encoding speed. The functions of detecting
                packets with a small voice load are carried by nodes with the standard name Voice Activity
                Detector (VAD). The main difficulty in the synthesis of VAD for VoIP speech signal encoders
                is the correct detection of speech pauses against a background of sufficiently intense acoustic
                noise (office, street, car noise, etc.). However, the use of VAD makes it possible to significantly
                save the bandwidth of a distributed network.

                Keywords 1
                Speech signal, coder, Voice Activity Detector, Voice over IP

1. Introduction
    The use of VAD provides a possible to pre-process the speech signal before transferring it to the
encoder. In the first approximation, the following types of signal fragments can be selected: vocalized,
non-vocalized, transitional and pauses. When transmitting speech in digital form, that is, in the form of
a sequence of numbers, each type of signal with the same duration and the same quality requires a
different number of bits for encoding and transmission. Therefore, the transmission speed of different
types of signals can be also different. An important conclusion follows from this: the transmission of
speech data in each direction of a duplex channel should be considered as the transmission of
asynchronous logically independent fragments of digital sequences (transactions) with block
(datagram) synchronization within a transaction filled with blocks of different lengths.

2. Overview of existing VAD solutions
   VAD technology is used in conbination with a large number of language codecs.
        1. The simplest example of the VAD mechanism is illustrated in fig. 1 [1]. The speech signal
            enters the input of the comparison device, in which its amplitude is measured and compared
            with a given threshold value at some selected time interval.
   When the amplitude of the input signal exceeds the specified threshold (Fig. 1), the signal enters the
codec input and encodes according to a certain algorithm (interval T2–T3). If the amplitude of the input
signal is lower than the threshold value (for example, before the interval T1–T2), then at the moment the
T1 transfer only service information (much smaller size) about the beginning of the pause, and at the


MoMLeT+DS 2022: 4th International Workshop on Modern Machine Learning Technologies and Data Science, November, 25-26, 2022,
Leiden-Lviv, The Netherlands-Ukraine
EMAIL: olexandr.tymchenko@uwm.edu.pl (O. Tymchenko); dana.havrysh@gmail.com (B. Havrysh); khamula@gmail.com (O. Khamula);
bkovalskyi@ukr.net (B. Kovalskyi)
ORCID: 0000-0001-6315-9375 (O. Tymchenko); 0000-0003-3213-9747 (B. Havrysh); 0000-0003-0926-9156 (O. Khamula); 0000-0001-
9088-1144 (B. Kovalskyi)
             ©� 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
             Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
             CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
moment T2 about its end. On the receiving side, during the pause, to improve the subjective perception
of speech, a comfortable noise can be submit into the phone [2, 7].




Figure 1: Principle of operation of VAD by level

       2. The considered algorithm has been improved in [2, 3], when it is applied to each of the
          speech segments which formed when the speech signal is broken down into quasi-stationary
          T fr fragments. Then the set threshold discards (resets) part of the counts of the speech
            fragment that are smaller than it. After that, after counting the number of rejected counts, an
            additional threshold is set, determined by the quantitative ratio between existing counts in
            the speech fragment, to counts that are smaller than the selected threshold and subordinate
            to rejection. Based on the results of the analysis, a decision is made about the possibility of
            discarding the entire package, which significantly increases the effectiveness of the VAD as
            a whole.
    The algorithm of such a VAD will be presented as follows. For each speech fragment, the following
is calculated (1):
                                                    k
                                         =m        ∑ ( xi < xtv )                                      (1)
                                                   i =1
where k – the total number of readings in the fragment; xtv – threshold value
    The limit number of readings in a speech fragment is set – mtv < k , less than which is considered
that the fragment does not contain speech load. If m < mtv , then a decision is made to discard (reset)
this speech fragment.
        3. There is a VAD method based on the power level calculated in each speech segment Pfr
           [3]. This algorithm is more complicated in comparison to the previous one, as it requires the
           calculation of the power of the running fragment and the determination of the ratio (2):

                                        =  q =
                                                Pfr   ∑ i xi2                                        (2)
                                               Pmax    σ x2
   If the value is less than the specified threshold q < qtv , then, as in the previous case, this will
determine the need to discard the packet.
           1. The GSM standard adopts the VAD scheme with processing in the frequency domain
           [4, 5]. The structural diagram of such a VAD is shown in Fig. 2. Her work is based on the
           difference between the spectral characteristics of speech and noise. Background noise is
           assumed to be stationary over a relatively long period of time, and its spectrum slowly
           changes over time. VAD determines the spectral deviations of the input action from the
           background noise spectrum.
Figure 2: Structural diagram of the VAD according to the spectral characteristics of the noise

    This operation is carried out by an inverse filter, the coefficients of which are set in relation to the
action at the input of the circuit for predicting only background noise. If there is a speech signal and
noise at the input, the inverse filter suppresses the noise components and reduces its intensity. The
energy of the signal + noise at the output of the inverse filter is compared with the threshold. This
threshold is higher than the energy level of the noise signal only. Exceeding the threshold is considered
for presence of a signal. The coefficients of the inverse filter and the threshold level change over time
depending on the current value of the noise level when only noise is applied to the input. Since these
parameters (coefficients and threshold) are used by the VAD detector for speech detection, the VAD
itself cannot make a decision at this stage of the analysis, since the threshold can change [6-9].
    This decision is made by the secondary VAD based on the comparison of the bypass spectra in
successive time periods. If they are similar or close for a relatively long time, then it is assumed that
there is noise at the input of the detector, then the filter coefficients and the noise threshold can be
changed, that is, adapted to the current level and spectral characteristics of the input noise.
    VAD with processing in the spectral domain is successfully combined with the speech RPE/LTP-
LPC codec, since the envelope of the input action spectrum, necessary for the operation of the secondary
VAD, is already determined in the process of LPC analysis. An obvious disadvantage of this scheme is
the "relatively long period of time" during which a decision is made about the presence of noise or a
signal.

3. Basic requirements for the VAD system
   The VAD detector must be sensitive and fast to avoid loss of word onsets when transitioning from
a pause to an active speech fragment, at the same time the VAD detector must not be triggered by
background noise.
   The work of the VAD is to estimate the value of the parameter of the input signal (for example,
level, power or energy) and if it exceeds a certain threshold, activate the transmission of the packet.
This slightly increases the delay when processing the speech signal in the codec, but it can be minimized
by using encoders that work with blocks of counts, for example, based on transformations.
   In the coder analyzer with the language coding rate C (bit/c), the signal is segmented into separate
fragments (as a rule, quasi-stationary sections) with duration Tfr from 2 to 50 ms, and for each input
block consisting of N counts, is created accordingly an information frame of size (3):
                                          𝑉𝑉𝑘𝑘 . (𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏𝑏) = 𝑇𝑇𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 . ·С𝑘𝑘 ,                           (3)
   Regardless of the details of the implementation, the main determinant in the evaluation of the
encoder is the high quality of speech reproduction at a low speed of the output digital stream Сk with
minimal requirements for the resources of the digital processing processor and minimal delay.

3.1. Determination of the main parameters of the telephone signal for the
operation of the VAD system
  A telephone conversation between two consumers is usually accompanied by a large number of
emotional pauses, and taking into account the delays experienced by speech packets in VoIР networks
(more than 50 ms), pauses are added to natural speech to wait for an answer.
    In telephone networks, for the transmission of speech signals with high quality (with satisfactory
naturalness and intelligibility of syllables – 90% and phrases – 99%), you can limit yourself to the
frequency band of 0.3...3.4 kHz [2, 10-12].
    For this study, it can be assumed that the distribution of instantaneous values of speech signals
corresponds to the exponential law [3] (4):
                                                    e / 2, x ≥ 0;
                                                         ax
                                           F ( x) =                                                     (4)
                                                     1 − e , x < 0,
                                                            ax

where F(x) – the probability of instantaneous signal values; 𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 – the effective (root mean square) value
of the signal x(t) (5).
                                                                                     1       Т
                                  𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = �Р𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 ⋅ 1 𝑂𝑂ℎ𝑚𝑚 = � ∫0 𝑐𝑐 𝑥𝑥 2 (𝑡𝑡)𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑                       (5)
                                                               Т                      𝑐𝑐
where Ptf – the signal power averaged over the observation time 𝑇𝑇𝑐𝑐 = 𝑇𝑇𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 .
   For a telephone signal (TF), it is possible to accept the exponential law of the distribution of
                                                                             3
instantaneous values of speech signals with the parameter 𝑎𝑎 = √2/𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 then, for the value of the limit
voltage 𝑋𝑋𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 , the probability F of exceeding which is 𝜀𝜀 < 10−3 , it is possible to write (6):
                                         𝑒𝑒 𝑎𝑎𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 2𝜀𝜀 where 𝑋𝑋𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 ≈ 5𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 .                 (6)
   In this case, the value of the signal peak factor is equal to (7):
                                               𝑃𝑃                                        𝑋𝑋
                            𝑄𝑄𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 10 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 � 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 � = 20 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 � 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙� ≈ 14 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑              (7)
                                                    𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡                                𝑋𝑋𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
   Relation (8):
                                                                        𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
                                           𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 10 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 �                      � 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑               (8)
                                                                    𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚
is the dynamic level (volume) of the TF signal. In this expression 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 is the power of the measured
signal at the point of the tract where research is conducted. According to the ITU-T recommendations,
volumes are measured with a special device (volume meter), which provides a quadratic law of
summation of oscillations of different frequencies, has a logarithmic scale (in decibels) and a time
constant (integration time) of 𝑇𝑇𝑐𝑐 = 200 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚. Statistical studies have established that the distribution of
volumes obeys the Gaussian law with an average value
                 𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = −12.7 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 and the mean square deviation 𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 = 4.3 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑.
                                                                                                      2
                                                                            �𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 −𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑓𝑓.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 �
                                                             1          −                 2
                                         𝑤𝑤(𝑌𝑌) =                  𝑒𝑒                 2𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌
                                                                                                          (9)
                                                        �2𝜋𝜋𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌
where 𝑤𝑤(𝑌𝑌) – the volume distribution density; 𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 – the root mean square deviation.
   The corresponding average power level in the voice frequency circuit can be found using the formula
(10):
                                                    𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙10 2
                𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 +       𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 = −12.7 + 0.115 ∙ 4.32 = −10.57 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 (10)
                                          20
    Then 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 100.1(−10.57) = 88 𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 – the average power of the TF signal in the voice frequency
circuit without taking pauses into account.
    The influence of pauses is taken into account using the activity coefficient Kа of the signal source.
It is equal to the ratio of the time during which the signal level at its output exceeds the set threshold
value (usually –40 dBmW) to the total conversation time. Statistics of the TF signal gives Kа ≥ 0.25.
Then the average power of the TF signal, including pauses (11):
                                                  𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎.𝑛𝑛 ≈ 𝐾𝐾𝑎𝑎 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 + 10,
                                              𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎.𝑛𝑛 = 32𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 (−15 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑)                  (11)
here the second term of the right-hand side, equal to 10 µW, is introduced according to the ITU-T
recommendations, as a correction for the increased power of the signals accompanying the TF
conversation (staff conversations and service signals transmitted on the same channel).
    Taking into account expression (6), it is possible to determine the maximum level of 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 .
corresponding to the maximum power 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 and the limit voltage 𝑋𝑋𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 (12):
                             𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 + 𝑄𝑄𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 − 10.57 + 14 = 3.43 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 .      (12)
   For signals transmitted via digital channels, 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = +3 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 is usually accepted, and for
signals transmitted using analog transmission systems +3 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑. In the latter case, the maximum
power of 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 will be equal to 2220 μW.
   The minimum volume is considered to be the volume whose smaller values appear with a probability
of ε<10-3 (13):
                                           𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 − 3.09𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 .              (13)
    Then the level of 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 , which corresponds to the minimum signal, will be lower than 𝑌𝑌𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑛𝑛 by
the value of the peak factor. Thus, the dynamic range of the 𝐷𝐷𝑐𝑐.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 signal, taking into account formulas
(10) and (12), will be (13):
                   𝐷𝐷𝑐𝑐.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 − 𝑃𝑃𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 2𝑄𝑄𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 + 3.09𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌 + 0.115𝜎𝜎𝑌𝑌2 = 40 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑      (13)
    It was experimentally established [3, 13, 15-17] that the quality of reception of the TF signal is still
acceptable at an average interference power of 178000 pW. Therefore, the required immunity of the
telephone signal should be (14):
                                                          10−6
                               𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 ≥ 10 lg �88 ∙ 178000 ∙ 10−12 � ≈ 27 𝑑𝑑𝐵𝐵                          (14)
  The dynamic range of the TF signal, calculated as the ratio of the maximum power to the average
power of the permissible fluctuation interference, is equal to (15):
                                                           10−6
                              𝐷𝐷𝑐𝑐.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 10 lg �2220 ∙          ∙ 10−12 � ≈ 41𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑,                         (15)
                                                          178000
which slightly differs from the value found by formula (10).
   When evaluating the potential information volume, it is necessary to take into account the activity
coefficient of the signal source. Then for the speech signal (16):
                              𝑉𝑉𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡.𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 𝐾𝐾𝑎𝑎 𝐹𝐹𝐵𝐵 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙2 �1 + 100.1𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 � = 7.6 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 (16)
   Here, 𝐹𝐹𝐵𝐵 = 3.4 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 is the upper frequency of the tone frequency channel.

3.2.     A proposed mechanism of VAD
    In the VAD structure (Fig. 2), the noise level at the output of the encoder is equalized and its
threshold is set, adapting the encoder in relation to the value of the input speech signal. Analogous to
this solution, noise equalization can be replaced by maintaining the input signal level within certain
limits, while simultaneously fixing the noise level. That is, such a scheme becomes adaptive to the
signal level. The implementation of such a principle is simple, both in analog and digital form. Its
structure corresponds to the circuit with automatic gain control (ARP), which means it has the ability
to adapt almost instantly to the level of the input signal.
    The very implementation of the proposed principle of VAD operation is faster and simpler than in
the GSM system. The integrator present in the circuit must have a time constant τ = 0.5...1s = TRC and
the condition TRC> 𝑇𝑇𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 must be fulfilled. The noise level will be maintained at the protection level of
the tone frequency channel 𝐴𝐴𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖.𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 ≈ 27𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑. At the same time, it is not necessary, as in GSM, to make
a delay (for five packets) to start transmitting a sign of comfort noise.

4. Research and modeling of the proposed voice activity detector
   Considering the properties of the speech signal, the need to use VAD is obvious when creating and
researching models of speech signal encoders [4, 14, 18] for VoIP. In the process of modeling the
coding method based on the wavelet transformation, a processing block was introduced, which
implements the speech activity detector function highlighted in Fig. 3 (a). The VAD operation algorithm
makes it possible to reset speech count packets if they contain counts smaller than the threshold set by
the VAD block.
4.1.    VAD modeling by signal level
       1. Beforehand a calculation is made for 𝑋𝑋𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 of the maximum signal count in all segments of
          the speech fragment, that can be processed (by default 𝑋𝑋𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 1);
       2. 𝑥𝑥𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 is established. (expressed in the number of levels 𝑘𝑘𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 = 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32) in relation to
          𝑋𝑋𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 (17)
                                                           𝑘𝑘
                                              𝑥𝑥𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 = 𝑘𝑘 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 𝑋𝑋𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 ,                                 (17)
                                                            𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚

   where 𝑘𝑘𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 = 127 – the maximum number of levels;
           a comparison of all counts in the segments 𝑥𝑥𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 and determined their numbers
           𝑚𝑚 = ∑𝑖𝑖∈𝑘𝑘(𝑥𝑥𝑖𝑖 < 𝑥𝑥𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 ), further, according to the set threshold for the number of readings that
           can be discarded in the segment (for example, 80%), which is smaller than the percentage,
           if 𝑚𝑚 < 𝐾𝐾 ∙ 0.8𝑘𝑘𝑥𝑥𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 , (K=160 counts are selected in the research), then it is decided that all
           readings of the segment are equal zero;
      3. after processing one segment, we move to the next (up to 2) until we check the entire file.




Figure 3: The scheme of evaluating the quality of the speech signal VoIP with WT highlighted (a) VAD
structure

4.2.    Modeling VAD by power
   The algorithm model implements the following sequence of operations:
       1. estimation of the maximum signal power in the speech fragment that can be processed by
           the VAD detector;
       2. setting the threshold 𝑘𝑘𝑃𝑃 = 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 in % of 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 ;
       3. performing a comparison of the signal powers in each segment of 𝑃𝑃𝑖𝑖 with the selected
           threshold – 𝑃𝑃𝑖𝑖 < 𝑘𝑘𝑃𝑃 𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 and if the condition is met, then this packet is discarded;
       4. the operations of points 2, 3 are repeated for all segments of the speech fragment.
   The speech segments processed according to the proposed VAD algorithms were transfer to the
coder that uses the wavelet transformation, after which the reverse decoding and assembly of the
segments was carried out. To assess the quality of speech signal reproduction, the objective assessment
proposed in [19, 20] was used by comparing input and output speech readings and determining the root
mean square deviation (SKD) between them. It is also possible to listen to the source file, that is, to
subjectively evaluate the received speech signal by ear.
   The results of modeling and research are presented in fig. 4-8. Shown: fig. 4 – signal form; Fig. 5 –
(SKD) of the output signal; Fig. 6 – compression coefficient Kst; Fig. 7 – relevant parameters for VAD
by power; Fig. 8 – comparison of VAD methods by level and power. (MSE) values were noted and Kst
values were achieved with reasonably good legibility.




Figure 4: VAD performance study
   a) input signal;
   b) output signal from VAD at the level of 1/16;
   c) output signal from VAD at 1% segment power




Figure 5: Study of the operation of VAD MSE of the output signal
   a) VAD at the level of 1/128;
   b) VAD at the level of 1/16;
   c) VAD at the general file level
Figure 6: Study of the work of the VAD compression ratio
   a) VAD at the level of 1/128;
   b) VAD at the level of 1/16;
   c) VAD at the general file level




Figure 7: VAD performance study
   a) MSE of the output signal from the VAD by power common to the file;
   b) compression ratio with VAD at a power of 1%;
   c) compression ratio with VAD by total power per file
Figure 8: Comparison of VAD methods by compression ratio
   a) VAD by level;
   b) VAD by power

5. Conclusion
    The proposed VAD operation algorithm is highly efficient and provides a sufficiently high
compression ratio. When evaluating the quality of VAD work according to the SKD criterion and when
listening to processed speech samples, it is possible to indicate the maximum value of rejected
quantization levels and the value of the adaptive power threshold at which the number of zeroed
segments practically does not affect the quality of the restored speech signal. Therefore, during the
conducted research, slight deviations in the quality of speech signal reproduction are observed when
discarding up to 8 quantization levels out of 128, or when a power threshold of 0.3% of the maximum
signal level in the segment is set. Accordingly, the achieved compression ratio is 19.35 and 15.6 (bit
rate 3.3 and 4.1 kbps).

6. Acknowledgments
    The authors are appreciative of colleagues for their support and appropriate suggestions, which
allowed to improve the materials of the article.

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