Abstract: A novel and improved method and apparatus for a fast-slewing pseudorandom noise sequence generator is described. One or more loadable PN generators are controlled by a DSP or microprocessor in conjunction with a free-running counter which maintains a reference offset count. The PN generator will typically be part of a finger or searcher. The DSP or microprocessor may assist in other finger or searcher functions as well as the slew function, and can control one or more fingers and/or searchers. Each PN generator is comprised of a loadable linear feedback shift register (LFSR) or its equivalent, a loadable counter for maintaining an index of the state of that particular PN generator, and a slew control device capable of receiving a slew command and controlling the LFSR and index counter to enact an advance or a retard of a certain offset distance.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for canceling both earseal and hybrid echo in a Wireless Local Loop telephone system is disclosed. The present invention operates within a subscriber station having a plurality of telephone inputs, one of which is a dedicated handset and at least one other input being a standard analog telephone. During a conference call between a far end speaker and two near end speakers, the far end speaker may hear an echo of his own voice due to an earseal echo generated by the dedicated handset and a hybrid echo generated by a 4-to-2 wire hybrid interface within the subscriber station. In accordance with the present invention, two distinct echo cancellers are used in the subscriber station to reduce the two types of echo. A first echo canceller is optimized to remove the earseal echo generated at the dedicated handset while a second echo canceller is optimized to remove the hybrid echo generated at the 4-to-2 wire hybrid.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling various functional elements in a digital telephone system using state determination from an echo canceller. An echo canceller is used to evaluate which one of five talk states two speakers are engaged in during a telephone conversation. This state determination information is used to control a tone detector function, a noise suppressor function, an adaptive equalizer function, a transmission mute function, and a vocoder encoder function within a vocoder. During the talk state where the far-end speaker is active and the near-end speaker is inactive, the echo canceller provides a signal which disables background noise estimates from being performed in the noise suppressor and the vocoder encoder. The same signal is used to disable the tone detector and to enable the transmission mute function during this talk state.

Abstract: When one vocoding system is coupled to another vocoding system, a tandem arrangement results. The tandem configuration results in voice quality degradation as speech is encoded and decoded, then encoded and decoded again. One reason for the degradation is that postfiltering performed at the output of the speech decoding process introduces distortions in the spectral content of the reconstructed speech as compared to the original speech. The present invention prevents the degradation due to the use of postfilters by modifying the postfiltering within the vocoders where a tandem configuration exists. A detection code is embedded within the data signal to indicate the existence of a tandem configuration. If the detection code is received at a vocoder, modified vocoding is established within the vocoders to prevent the degradation due to the postfiltering.

Abstract: A novel and improved method and apparatus for providing an interface to a digital wireless telephone system compatible with standard analog wire line telephones and analog wire line fax machines is disclosed. During a telephone call, a fax detector monitors the incoming data for fax signals. If a fax is detected, the data processor switches from processing the data as if it were voice to processing it as fax. In addition, the remote station is sent a signal notifying it to process the data as fax rather than voice. The fax detector operates by detecting the preamble of a V.21 message, present at the beginning of every fax call. Energy is measured in both frequencies of the BFSK signals. A decision is made by analyzing these energies and locating a specific pattern which repeats itself a sufficient number of times.

Abstract: An improved method and apparatus for canceling echo is disclosed. The echo canceller of the present invention compensates for the existence of quantization error in the echo signal that does not exist in the reference signal by introducing the quantization effects into the reference signal. The quantization effects are typically companding quantization errors caused by the A-law and .mu.-law quantizers prevalent in digital communications equipment.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are described for detecting doubletalk in an acoustic echo canceller. The present invention examines the spectral characteristic of the near-end audio signal and the spectral characteristics of the far-end audio signal and determines from the comparison if a condition of doubletalk exists. An exemplary implementaion of the present invention is presented in an acoustic echo canceller wherein the adaptation of the adaptive filter taps is inhibited during periods of doubletalk.

Abstract: A method for controlling echo canceling in an echo cancellation system using a state machine controller. A far-end speech signal transmitted through a communications channel may be passed through an echo channel to produce an echo signal. The echo signal is summed with a near-end speech signal and transmitted back to the far-end. An echo canceller rejects the echo signal by forming an estimate of the echo signal and subtracting the estimate from the sum of the near-end speech signal and the echo signal. The echo canceller includes a state machine which is configured into a predetermined state of a plurality of states depending on the presence near-end speech signal, far-end speech signal, or both near-end and far-end speech signals. Based on the predetermined state of the state machine, the controller in the state machine controls the update of coefficients of a plurality of adaptive filters.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for detecting and correcting for variations in the flat delay, which permits smooth echo canceller operation even under dynamic delay conditions. In a delay monitor, the received signal is compared against delayed versions of the echo estimate to determine whether a shift in the echo delay has occurred. If such a shift in delay has occurred then a signal indicating the amount of the shift is to the adaptive filter of the echo canceller and the filter taps are updated in accordance with the delay shift value.

Abstract: A noise replacement system and method for providing a synthesized noise replacement signal to an output speech channel in an echo cancellation system. A far-end speech signal transmitted through a communications channel may be passed through an echo channel to produce an echo signal. The echo signal is summed with near-end speech and transmitted back to the far-end in the output speech channel. An echo canceller rejects the echo signal by forming an estimate of the echo signal and subtracting the estimate from the sum of the near-end speech and the echo signal to produce an echo residual signal. When only the far-end speaker is talking, the echo is completely rejected by replacing the echo residual signal with a synthesized noise signal. The noise is synthesized to match the power and spectral characteristics of the actual background noise at the near-end to prevent the far-end speaker from detecting any change in signal characteristics.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for performing subband adaptive filtering is proposed. A signal is prefiltered by a set of complementary filters to provide corresponding subbands of the input signal. The subbands of the signal are then provided to adaptive filters that filter the subbands separately. The individually filtered subbands are then summed. In an exemplary implementation an echo canceller is presented which employs the subband filtering method and apparatus.

Abstract: A system and method for detecting convergence in an echo canceller prevent false convergence from occurring as a result of receiving only tones in an input signal. An adaptive filter is used in an echo canceller to estimate an echo signal produced by an unknown echo channel. The estimated echo signal is subtracted from the return signal to remove the echo produced by the unknown echo channel. To prevent the echo canceller from falsely converging on a signal which contains only tones a system and method are provided for detecting the presence of tones in the absence of other frequencies. Filter taps of the adaptive filter are filtered to produce a filtered signal. The amount of energy in the filtered signal is compared to the amount of energy in the unfiltered filter taps to determine whether only tones have been present. If only tones have been present, the echo canceller is not allowed to reduce the adaptation step size of the adaptive filter.

Abstract: An echo canceller and method for cancelling in a return channel signal an echoed receive channel signal where the echoed receive channel signal is combined by an echo channel with an input return channel signal. The echo canceller has a first filter which generates first filter coefficients, generates a first echo estimate signal with the first filter coefficients, and updates the first filter coefficients in response to a first filter control signal. A first summer subtracts the first echo estimate signal from a combined return channel and echo receive channel signal to generate a first echo residual signal. A second filter generates second filter coeffidents, generates a second echo estimate signal with the second filter coefficients, and updates the second filter coefficients in response to a second filter control signal.

Abstract: An apparatus that automatically adjusts the adaptation block size for a least-mean square (LMS) adaptive filter depending on the input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is disclosed. The apparatus monitors the instantaneous SNR and continually adjusts the block size to provide high noise immunity, thereby increasing the convergence speed of the filter and decreasing the asymptotic mean-square error. An exemplary embodiment of the present invention is presented in the context of acoustic echo cancellation, though it is noted that the adaptive filter of the present invention is useful in any environment in which the noise characteristics are subject to change.

Abstract: An echo canceller and method for cancelling in a return channel signal an echoed receive channel signal where the echoed receive channel signal is combined by an echo channel with an input return channel signal. The echo canceller has a first filter which generates first filter coefficients, generates a first echo estimate signal with the first filter coefficients, and updates the first filter coefficients in response to a first filter control signal. A first summer subtracts the first echo estimate signal from a combined return channel and echo receive channel signal to generate a first echo residual signal. A second filter generates second filter coefficients, generates a second echo estimate signal with the second filter coefficients, and updates the second filter coefficients in response to a second filter control signal.