Vocoders in mobile satellite communications

Owing to the power constraints that characterize onboard transmission sections, low-bit-rate coders seem suitable for speech communications inside mobile satellite systems. Vocoders that operate at rates below 4.8 kbit/s could therefore be a desirable solution for this application, providing also the redundancy that must be added to cope with the channel error rate. After reviewing the mobile-satellite-systems aspects, the paper outlines the features of two different types of vocoders that are likely to be employed, and the relevant methods of assessing their performances. Finally, some results from computer simulations of the speech transmission systems are reported.