The unprecedented growth in the range of multimedia services offered today by modern telecommunication systems, is possible because of the advancements in signal processing technologies and algorithms.

The book presents a group of invited contributions, some of which have been based on the papers presented at the 7th International Symposium on DSP for Communication Systems held in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast, Australia, in December 2003. Part I of the book deals with applications of signal processing to transform what we hear or see to the form that is most suitable for transmission or storage for a future retrieval. The first three chapters in this section are devoted to processing of speech and other audio signals. The next two chapters consider image coding and compression, while the last chapter of this part describes classification of video sequences in the MPEG domain.

Part II, consisting of eight chapters, describes the use of signal processing for enhancing performance of communication systems. This enables the most reliable and efficient use of those systems to support transmission of large volumes of data generated by multimedia applications. The topics considered in this part, range from error-control coding through some advanced problems of the code division multiple access (CDMA), to multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems and space-time coding.

The last part of SIGNAL PROCESSING FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND MULTIMEDIA contains seven chapters that present some emerging system implementations, utilizing signal processing to improve system performance and allow for a cost reduction. The issues considered, range from antenna design and channel equalization through multi-rate digital signal processing, to practical DSP implementation of a wideband direct sequence spread spectrum modem.

"well equipped with exercises and with procedures which are helpful in implementing the coders" (Zentralblatt Math, Vol.1041, No.16, 2004)

• Speech coding is a highly mature branch of signal processing deployed in products such as cellular phones, communication devices, and more recently, voice over internet protocol
• This book collects many of the techniques used in speech coding and presents them in an accessible fashion
• Emphasizes the foundation and evolution of standardized speech coders, covering standards from 1984 to the present
• The theory behind the applications is thoroughly analyzed and proved