The audio quality, robustness and implementational complexity of a novel mobile digital audio broadcast scheme are addressed. The audio codec proposed is based on an efficient combination of subband coding (SBC) and multipulse excited linear prediction coding (MPLPC). The bit allocation is dynamically adapted according to both the signal power in different subbands and a perceptual hearing model. Typically a segmental signal to noise ratio (SEGSNR) in excess of 30 dB associated with high fidelity subjective quality was achieved for 2.67-b/sample transmissions at a bit rate of 86 kb/s. Perceptually unimpaired audio quality was achieved for a bit error rate (BER) of about 10/sup -4/, when injecting random errors, which was degraded for increased BERs. In order to provide robust error protection, the audio codec was also subjected to a rigorous bit sensitivity analysis. Four different forward error correction schemes were investigated in order to explore the complexity, bit rate, and robustness tradeoffs.
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