Patent ID: 8184537

Claim:
A method of quantifying a voice quality in a telecommunication system including a first gateway in communication with a second gateway over a packet network, the method comprising: embedding a probe signal in a first speech signal from a first talker to generate a third speech signal, the first speech signal having a voice portion and a silence portion, wherein embedding includes masking the probe signal by the voice portion of the first speech signal; transmitting the third speech signal to the second gateway over the packet network; receiving a modified third speech signal over the packet network from the second gateway; and deriving speech parameters from a first speech signal of the first talker received by the first gateway over a first communication line and the modified third speech signal received by the first gateway from the second gateway over the packet network; determining a conversational impairment index using the speech parameters; deriving technology parameters based on voice technology and components in the telecommunication system; determining a technology impairment index using the technology parameters; and mapping the conversational impairment index and the technology impairment index into a conversational quality index to quantify the voice quality in the telecommunication system.