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New Benchmark Studies Evaluate Enhanced Voice Services (EVS) in the Lab and Live NetworkSpirent Communications and Signals Research Group (SRG) revealed their latest collaboration on chapter 5 and 6 in the multi-part study of all things VoLTE. With global interest in the 3GPP-defined Enhanced Voice Services (EVS), the two industry leaders recently executed back-to-back studies to explore the benefits and user experience of this promising voice services codec, both in the lab and on a live commercial network. The EVS codec is designed to support high quality and high efficiency and has intrigued wireless operators worldwide. Unlike its predecessor, AMR, which was used for initial VoLTE deployments and marketed as "HD Voice," EVS was developed and optimized specifically for LTE (News - Alert). EVS is a feature-rich codec that supports everything from narrow band (NB) to super wide band (SWB) with bit rates starting at 5.9 kps to 128 kps and a multitude of advanced error treatment capabilities. "Naturally, we were excited to take a close look at the promises of this new voice codec," said Michael Thelander, President of SRG. "With all the hype over what EVS can deliver and the many features and deployment options for carriers, it is a great opportunity to evaluate many different use case scenarios and benchmark performance results. We ran round one on Spirent's (News - Alert) Elevate test system in the lab using Spirent Nomad to measure audio quality and then took the same Nomad measurement system to the field on a commercial network. The bottom line, EVS outperforms its predecessors and exhibited significant benefits." "Behind the VoLTE Curtain, Part 5" provided the industry's first independent performance analysis of EVS and how it compares to AMR under a wide range of conditions in a tightly controlled lab environment. The Spirent lab configuration enabled precise control over the conditions (clean channel and noise) as well as the introduction of IP impairments including delay, jitter and packet loss which led to several key findings:
"By testing in a commercial network, we were able to confirm that the observations we made in the lab environment carried forward to a commercial deployment," noted Mr. Thelander. "At the same time, testing in a commercial network meant dealing with an uncontrolled environment where variances in the test results were inevitable due to the nature of the beast." Signals Research Group has partnered with Spirent for over a decade on various benchmark studies with the EVS studies being the most recent chapters in a two-year focus on the investigation and evaluation of all VoLTE-related activities including VoLTE vs OTT, Video telephony and VoWiFi. Spirent and SRG plan to continue exploring additional EVS testing in the lab and are preparing a second round of video testing in both lab and field - stay tuned for more exciting results. For a preview of the report in Signals Ahead, "Behind The VoLTE Curtain, Part 5 and 6" please visit www.signalsresearch.com. For more information on testing the EVS Codec: http://www.spirent.com/Assets/WP/WP_Testing-the-EVS-Codec and for more on Spirent's Elevate VoLTE audio quality system, please visit http://www.spirent.com/Products/IMS_VoLTE_and_RCS_solution. For more information on Spirent's Nomad - part of the Umetrix User Experience Evaluation Platform, please visit http://www.spirent.com/Products/User_Experience_Evaluation. About Spirent Communications (News - Alert) plc Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT), a global leader in test and measurement, offers an extensive portfolio of solutions to test data centers, cloud computing and virtualized environments, high speed Ethernet networks and services, 3G/4G wireless networks and devices, network and application security, and positioning technologies. For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/about-us/News_Room/About_Spirent_Communications_plc.aspx View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160803005477/en/ |