Patent ID: 7469209

Claim:
An apparatus for performing frame classification and rate determination in a transcoding process operating on a source bitstream coded in a source voice codec, the transcoding process being performed without reconstructing a voice signal, the apparatus comprising: a source bitstream unpacker associated with the source codec, the source bitstream unpacker being operative to generate one or more parameters, wherein the source bitstream unpacker comprises: a code separator operative to receive the source bitstream coded by the source voice codec and separate one or more indices representing one or more compression parameters associated with the source voice codec, one or more unquantizer modules coupled to the code separator, the one or more unquantizer modules operative to unquantize the one or more indices to provide one or more compression parameters associated the source voice codec, and a classifier input parameter selector coupled to the one or more unquantizer modules, the classifier input parameter selector operative to determine which compression parameters will be used in a classification process; a buffer coupled to the source bitstream unpacker and operative to store one or more frame classification and rate determination parameters; and a frame classification and rate determination module coupled to the source bitstream unpacker and the buffer, the frame classification and rate determination module being operative to output a frame class and a rate for the destination voice codec through the use of one or more parameters associated with the source bitstream coded in the source voice codec and free from the use of a voice signal.