MDCT-domain error concealment

1. A method for concealing errors in packets of data that are to be decoded in a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) based audio decoder arranged to decode a sequence of packets into a sequence of decoded frames, the method comprising:

receiving, from an MDCT based audio encoder arranged to encode an audio signal, a packet comprising a set of MDCT coefficients associated with a frame comprising time-domain samples of the audio signal;

identifying the received packet to be an erroneous packet in that the received packet comprises one or more errors;

generating estimated MDCT coefficients to replace the set of MDCT coefficients of the erroneous packet, the estimated MDCT coefficients being based on corresponding MDCT coefficients associated with a received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in the sequence of packets;

determining, for each of the estimated MDCT coefficients, whether the MDCT coefficient is associated with a tonal-like spectral bin or a noise-like spectral bin based on metadata associated with the packet, wherein the metadata is received in a bit stream comprising the sequence of packets and the metadata, and wherein said metadata comprises companding metadata or MDCT length metadata;

assigning signs of a first subset of MDCT coefficients of the estimated MDCT coefficients, wherein the first subset comprises such MDCT coefficients that are associated with tonal-like spectral bins of the packet, to be equal to corresponding signs of the corresponding MDCT coefficients of the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in said sequence of packets;

randomly assigning signs of a second subset of MDCT coefficients of the estimated MDCT coefficients, wherein the second subset comprises such MDCT coefficients that are associated with noise-like spectral bins of the packet;

generating a concealment packet based on the estimated MDCT coefficients and the selected signs of the packet; and

replacing the erroneous packet with the concealment packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated MDCT coefficients are selected to be equal to the corresponding MDCT coefficients of the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in said sequence of packets.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated MDCT coefficients are selected to be equal to the corresponding MDCT coefficients of the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in said sequence of packets, energy adjusted in scale-factor band resolution by an energy scaling factor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received packet comprises N/2 MDCT coefficients associated with N windowed time-domain samples of the audio signal, further comprising:

generating an intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples from the concealment frame by means of inverse MDCT (IMDCT);

modifying windowed time-domain aliased samples of the intermediate frame based on symmetry relations between the windowed time-domain aliased samples of the intermediate frame.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the modifying uses symmetry relations between the first half of the first half of the intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples and the second half of the first half of the intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples, and symmetry relations between the first half of the second half of the intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples and the second half of the second half of the intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received packet comprises N/2 MDCT coefficients associated with N windowed time-domain samples of the audio signal, further comprising:

generating an intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples from the concealment frame by means of IMDCT;

modifying windowed time-domain aliased samples of the intermediate frame based on relations between the windowed time-domain aliased samples of the intermediate frame and windowed time-domain samples of the N time-domain samples of the audio signal.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received packet comprises N/2 MDCT coefficients associated with N windowed time-domain samples of the audio signal, further comprising:

generating an estimated decoded frame by adding first half of the generated intermediate frame to a second half of a previous generated intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples associated with the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in the sequence of packets.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received packet comprises N/2 MDCT coefficients associated with N windowed time-domain samples of the audio signal, further comprising:

generating an intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples from the concealment frame by means of IMDCT;

generating an estimated decoded frame by adding first half of the generated intermediate frame to a second half of a previous generated intermediate frame comprising N windowed time-domain aliased samples associated with the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in the sequence of packets.

9. A decoding system for concealing errors in packets of data that are to be decoded in a modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) based audio decoder arranged to decode a sequence of packets into a sequence of decoded frames, the system comprising:

a receiver section configured to receive, from an MDCT based audio encoder arranged to encode an audio signal, a packet comprising a set of MDCT coefficients associated with a frame comprising time-domain samples of the audio signal;

an error detection section configured to identify the received packet to be an erroneous packet in that the received packet comprises one or more errors; and

an error concealment section configured to:

generate estimated MDCT coefficients to replace the set of MDCT coefficients of the erroneous packet, the estimated MDCT coefficients being based on corresponding MDCT coefficients associated with a received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in the sequence of packets; assign signs of a first subset of MDCT coefficients of the estimated MDCT coefficients, wherein the first subset comprises such MDCT coefficients that are associated with tonal-like spectral bins of the packet, to be equal to corresponding signs of the corresponding MDCT coefficients of the received packet, which directly precedes the erroneous packet in the sequence of packets;

randomly assign signs of a second subset of MDCT coefficients of the estimated MDCT coefficients, wherein the second subset comprises such MDCT coefficients that are associated with noise-like spectral bins of the packet;

generate a concealment packet based on the estimated MDCT coefficients and the selected signs of the packet; and

replace the erroneous packet with the concealment packet,

wherein the decoding system is configured to determine, for each of the estimated MDCT coefficients, whether the MDCT coefficient is associated with a tonal-like spectral bin or a noise-like spectral bin based on metadata associated with the packet, wherein the receiver section is configured to receive the metadata in a bit stream comprising the sequence of packets and the metadata, and wherein said metadata comprises companding metadata or MDCT length metadata.

10. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions for performing the method of claim 1 .