Voice Quality and Call Completion Rate for an Operational Radio Test

Part of tactical communications involves transmitting and receiving secure messages within operating environments often cluttered by many other radio waves, including radar pulses, jammers, and communications signals.  In the commercial world, wireless standards help to minimize interference between different radio waves, but that cooperation to standards does not exist in the battlefield.  Experience has demonstrated that getting the radio signals through may not always be the same as getting the voice message through.  During long transmissions on headsets, researchers discovered that information is often not received and has to be repeated, resulting in highly inefficient tactical communications efforts. The overall goal of this SBIR project is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing an unobtrusive, low-cost, and effective frame work to thoroughly measure call completion statistics and voice quality of each call during operation radio tests.  The end product resulting from this SBIR effort will be a voice quality test tool that will: Accurately capture every voice transmission at the origin and the resulting received message at the receiving stations. Quantitatively and subjectively evaluate the quality and fidelity of voice transmissions as they traverse the entire transceiver signal chain from microphone to speaker. Be small and conveniently mounted to unobtrusively capture the required information while not interfering with the operation of the communication gear in an operational setting. Provide thorough reporting and voice scoring using several assessment algorithms to provide an accurate assessment of the true voice performance of the radio system under test.