Abstract: A method and apparatus for objectively evaluating sound quality of a signal processor or transmission channel. The present invention analyzes the distortion in a series of test sound frames compared to a series of sample sound frames. The invention detects sequences of test sound frames having distortion levels that are greater than a temporal distortion threshold and calculates an average length and a maximum length of these sequences. The present invention also detects individual test sound frames having distortion levels that are greater than an outlier distortion threshold and calculates a percentage of these frames present in the series of test sound frames. Further, the present invention calculates the average distortion level in the series of test sound frames and a variance of the distortion level in the test sound frames.

Abstract: Devices, software, and methods measure a burstiness of packet loss episodes in transmissions of voice data through networks. At least one burstiness statistic is determined to quantify how the lost packets are distributed with respect to the received packets within the sequence. The burstiness statistic is optionally used to determine a figure of merit, which in turn can be used to give a grade for predicting how well a packet loss concealment scheme will work.