© Ericsson AB 2014 | 2014-10-16 | Page 1

EVS Advances in VoLTE Networks Stefan Bruhn Ericsson Research

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Evolution of voice Service

HD voice • 116 commercial HD voice networks in 75 countries – over 2G/3G/LTE*

• 30% more mobile operators offering HD voice than a year ago.*

• More than 300 HD voice phones launched*

* GSA Sept 2014 http://www.gsacom.com/news/gsa_415.php

EVS – Enhanced Voice Services • The next generation telecom voice codec

for voice and music for VoLTE

• Standardized in 3GPP

Traditional (narrowband) voice service • World wide deployment in all mobile and fixed network

Further reading: http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/whitepapers/wp-evolved-hd-voice-for-lte.pdf

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HD voice - successful operator business

Orange first in the world to launch mobile HD voice in 2009

Orange HD voice launched in 17 networks

Orange studies from 2012 show that consumers with HD voice phones • Increase voice usage with +3%

• 56% rate the operator network quality as better than before

• 73% are more encouraged to stay with the operator

• 88% recommend others to buy an HD voice phone

Even later studies show that HD voice

• Leads to improved user satisfaction that can turn into revenue either Directly by charging (monthly fee or per minute charge), or

Indirectly due to reduced churn

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Audio bandwidth for mobile voice services

Frequency [Hz] 3400 7000 50 300

Wideband

Lower Area

More natural sound

Mid Area

More natural voice, better understanding and voice recognition

Narrowband

Super Wideband

14000

Upper Area

Natural sound and high quality music

AMR

AMR-WB

EVS

Fullband

Traditional telephony quality

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Voice capacity in mobile network

Voice/music quality

AMR

(@12.2) Narrowband

EVS codec enhances HD voice by:

– Increasing the voice capacity

with same or even better quality

– Enhancing the voice and music quality with same capacity

– Can be used for high quality music services, preferably in fullband mode at rates > 13.2 kpbs

Super Wideband

EVS (@13.2)

AMR-WB

(@12.65) Wideband EVS

(< 13.2)

Fullband EVS

(>13.2)

EVS (<13.2)

EVS (< 13.2)

Benefits of EVS Codec

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Transport bit rate (kbps)

Narrow band 2.5G/3G

voice (AMR)

HD voice (AMR-WB)

HD voice evolution

(EVS)

Half rate 7.2

Regular bandwidth 13.2

(1

Possible future use 24.4

(3

Original:

Voice demo

Evolved HD voice for superior voice quality

(1 increased quality with same capacity (2 increased capacity (3 extraordinary quality

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Transport bit rate (kbps)

Narrow band 2.5G/3G

voice (AMR)

HD voice (AMR-WB)

HD voice evolution

(EVS)

Half rate 7.2

Regular bandwidth 13.2

Possible future use 24.4

Music demo

Excellent music experience in LTE/VoLTE networks

(1 increased quality with same capacity (2 increased capacity (3 extraordinary quality

(1

(3

Original:

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Benefits of HD Voice and its Evolution

Excellent voice and music experience

CONSUMER BENEFITS • Superior voice quality

• Excellent music quality

• Stereo sound

OPERATOR BENEFITS • Globally interoperable – based on 3GPP standards

• Improved telecom grade quality with same bandwidth

• Seamless interworking with legacy networks

LTE 2G/3G

VoLTE

LTE

EVS codec ↔ AMR-WB

VoLTE

LTE EVS codec

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EVS Codec features Feature Property

Narrowband (NB) operation 5.9 kbps (VBR), 7.2-24.4 kbps

Wideband (WB) operation 5.9 kbps (VBR), 7.2-128 kbps

Enhanced interoperation with all AMR-WB modes: 6.6 – 23.85 kbps

Super-Wideband (SWB) operation Bit rates (kbps): 9.6-128

Fullband (FB) operation Bit rates (kbps): 16.4-128

Smart bandwidth control Optimized bandwidth operation at each rate

VAD/DTX/CNG Available at all rates, required for 5.9kbps VBR

Channel-aware mode Available at 13.2 WB and SWB

Packet-Loss-Concealment Cutting-edge, included in standard

Jitter buffer management (JBM) Cutting-edge, included in standard

Rate adaptation support Seamless rate switching on 20ms frame basis

Audio sampling rate conversion Decouples input/output audio sampling rates from codec bandwidth

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Technology › Encoder structure

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Technology › LP based coding

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Technology › Frequency domain coding

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3GPP Standardization

› Rigorous process – Open, transparent, fair and constructive – Enabling mobile industry, with its many competing players, to

successfully develop and standardize the new EVS codec

› Working principles – Pre-study defined work items objectives – Upfront definition of Terms of Reference – Open process to any 3GPP member – Well-defined standardization phases – All standardization decisions unanimously agreed in 3GPP/SA4

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EVS testing Campaign › Unprecedented test budget exceeding €1.1M › 70 subjective performance tests using independent test labs › Objective requirements to be met simultaneously › Selection testing

– Processing and test results analysis done by independent labs – Subjective performance results

› Only 0.5% systematic requirement failures (2 out of 389) › Only 13% of objectives systematically not met (38 out of 295)

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Performance

WB Mixed/Music SWB Mixed/Music

SWB Clean speech SWB noise/FER

NB Clean speech WB Clean speech

Test results are courtesy of Fraunhofer, Nokia and Qualcomm; 3GPP selection test results available under http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/tsg_sa/WG4_CODEC/TSGS4_80bis/Docs/S4-141065.zip

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EVS Standard

› Approved specifications – TS 26.441 General Overview – TS 26.442 ANSI C code (fixed-point) – TS 26.444 Test Sequences – TS 26.445 Detailed Algorithmic Description

› Except Annex with EVS RTP payload format – TS 26.446 AMR-WB Backward Compatible Functions – TS 26.447 Error Concealment of Lost Packets – TS 26.448 Jitter Buffer Management – TS 26.449 Comfort Noise Generation (CNG) Aspects – TS 26.450 Discontinuous Transmission (DTX) – TS 26.451 Voice Activity Detection (VAD)

› Specifications to be finalized in December – TS 26.443 ANSI C code (floating-point) – TS 26.114 CR on inclusion of EVS into MTSI

› SA already approved that MTSI clients may use the EVS AMR-WB IO mode as alternative implementation of AMR-WB, when the EVS codec is supported.

› Decision on EVS codec status (mandatory/recommended/optional) still open. – TS 26.445 CR introducing Annex with EVS RTP payload format – TR 26.952 EVS Codec Performance Characterization – TS 2X.XXX CRs to CT3/CT4 specifications on introduction support of EVS in 3GPP speech services

incl. SRVCC › WID on EVS for CS ongoing, targeting beyond Rel-12

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Licensing

› 3GPP IPR Policy applies – All 3GPP members are obliged to declare any potential essential IPR – All EVS codec proponents provided an acceptable IPR declaration – EVS codec essential patents will be licensed under FRAND terms

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• 3GPP has selected new EVS codec as standard for 3GPP Release 12 • Enabling Enhanced Voice Services for MTSI, e.g. VoLTE • Standard is available NOW!

EVS Codec

• Unprecedented sound experience both for speech and music • Increased network efficiency for operators • Provides HD voice evolution path with full interoperability to AMR-WB

Mobile Industry

• 12 major infrastructure, chipset, device, technology vendors and operators created the standard together and are committed to it

• Deployments wait in 3GPP, fixed access, Internet, WebRTC • Ericsson offers to host an IMTC IMS AG event for EVS VoLTE interop test

in 2015.

Summary

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Clean speech ‡

Noisy speech ‡ Mixed/music ‡

… and Opus†?

†Opus 1.1 from http://www.opus-codec.org/ ‡Courtesy of Nokia

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… and Opus†? Clean speech ‡

Noisy speech ‡ Mixed/music ‡

†Opus 1.1 from http://www.opus-codec.org/ ‡Courtesy of Nokia