Date: 12/11/2009

Free codecs from Broadcom for voice applications

Broadcom is offering it free voice codecs family called BroadVoice for high-quality voice solutions. Broadcom is releasing its wideband and narrowband BroadVoice codecs in both floating-point and fixed-point C code as open source software under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

These free Codecs are aimed at bringing down the cost of HD voice-over IP (VoIP) applications.

The two variants include a 32 kb/s version called BroadVoice32 for wideband (HD) speech sampled at 16 kHz, and a 16 kb/s version called BroadVoice16 for narrowband telephone-bandwidth speech sampled at 8 kHz.
BroadVoice voice codecs reduce the latency, complexity and bandwidth usage on a range of wideband and narrowband voice applications including voice-over-cable, voice-over-DSL, Ethernet IP phones, Wi-Fi VoIP phones and software-based VoIP client solutions.
Additionally, for VoIP applications, distortion and echo are also reduced.

BroadVoice is available on Broadcom's cable, DSL and VoIP system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions.
When standardized by SCTE and ANSI, the BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 codecs are called BV16 and BV32, respectively. BV16 is a standard codec in PacketCable 1.5, PacketCable 2.0, ANSI/SCTE 24-21 2006, and ITU-T Recommendation J.161 specifications. BV32 is a standard codec in PacketCable 2.0, ANSI/SCTE 24-23 2007, and ITU-T Recommendation J.361 specifications.
The real-time transport protocol (RTP) payload formats for BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 are specified in RFC4298.
BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32 have very similar codec structures. Both variants share most of the algorithm modules so when implemented together, substantial code sharing and memory reduction can be achieved.
Broadcom is providing both the floating-point and fixed-point C source code of BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice 32 under an open source license (LGPL version 2.1) and on a royalty-free basis.

Norm Bogen, VP Research, Digital Entertainment, In-Stat said," Widespread deployment of HD VoIP is being inhibited by high cost. Broadband operators are looking for cost-effective ways to upgrade infrastructure and customer premises equipment to support enhanced voice services. By eliminating cost as a major constraint, the adoption of HD voice services should grow significantly, enabling service providers to significantly enhance the audio experience for their subscribers."

Dan Marotta, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group said, "We are seeing an increase in the number of requests for HD voice support from service providers who want to differentiate their telephony services from their competition. By offering high performance and highly efficient BroadVoice voice codecs royalty-free, we are enabling manufacturers and service providers to transition to HD VoIP as a means to significantly improve their customers' audio experience."

For more details www.broadcom.com

Editorial Product Rating: Average