Abstract: In a sensor system, an edge element receives data from at least one mobile sensor, and sends the data which may be preprocessed by the edge element to a server for further processing. The edge element may communicate to the mobile sensor to change a value of a run-time parameter in the mobile sensor to affect its operation. The edge element may also cause the mobile sensor to upgrade its firmware. When the mobile sensor is about to leave communication coverage of the edge element, the latter may initiate a peer-to-peer handover of the control and administration of the mobile sensor to another edge element in the sensor system.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for enhancing voice intelligibility for network communications of speech such as, for example, VoIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol), in the presence of packets which arrive too late for normal playout. When a late speech packet is received by a speech decoder, that packet and, if necessary, one or more additional packets subsequent thereto, are played out over a shorter than normal duration so that the decoder can “catch up” with the encoder. Since a voice frame is usually decoded in several sub-frames—typically two or three—this shortened playout may be achieved, for example, by skipping one sub-frame from each frame to be shortened.

Abstract: An enhanced Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) includes a satellite receiver for use in receiving video and/or data signals. Since most video services (and many data services) are updated relatively infrequently, and since most such services require that the majority of traffic be sent from the core to the client (as opposed to from the client to the core), delivering such services over a satellite channel advantageously provides an opportunity to offer broadcast services, for example, with minimal use of the existing backhaul network, thereby advantageously eliminating the bottleneck typically created by the limited bandwidth of the backhaul network which is conventionally used to supply such video and/or data signals.

Abstract: A pitch gain of the adaptive codebook portion of a vocoder's encoder is monitored to determine when an instability condition is about to occur by examining a pitch gain value and an averaged pitch gain value. When an instability is likely, the output of a gain control unit is set to an adaptive gain control value. When an instability is unlikely, the gain control unit passes the pitch gain to its output unmodified.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for improving sound quality in a digital cellular radio system receiver. A voice activity detector uses an energy estimate to detect the presence of speech in a received speech signal in a noise environment. When no speech is present the system attenuates the signal and inserts low pass filtered white noise. In addition, a set of high pass filters are used to filter the signal based upon the background noise level. This high pass filtering is applied to the signal regardless of whether speech is present. Thus, a combination of signal attenuation with insertion of low pass filtered white noise during periods of non-speech, along with high pass filtering of the signal, improves sound quality when decoding speech which has been encoded in a noisy environment.