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Comfort noise injection is the creation or insertion of artificial background-like sound during gaps in a voice transmission. It prevents silence suppression from making a call sound unnaturally silent when no one is speaking. In packet voice, a sender can stop sending ordinary audio packets during inactivity and send a compact noise description; the receiver then generates the sound locally.
How comfort noise injection works
The process usually involves three related functions. They cooperate, but they are not the same thing:
| Function | What it does | Where it acts |
|---|---|---|
| Voice activity detection (VAD) | Distinguishes active speech from inactive periods. | Typically at the sender. |
| Discontinuous transmission (DTX) | Reduces ordinary speech-packet transmission during inactivity and governs when a noise description is sent. | Sender and transmission behavior. |
| Comfort-noise generation (CNG) | Uses the received description to update a model and synthesize background-like sound. | Receiver. |
When speech resumes, ordinary voice transmission resumes. The generated sound is an approximation of the background noise, not a recording that must be sent continuously. RFC 3389 describes the CNG role as sufficiently describing ambient noise while minimizing transmission rate.
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IETF RFC 3389 defines an RTP payload format for comfort noise (CN). It conveys parameters that help a receiver generate noise; it does not prescribe one complete audio-generation method. The payload describes a noise level and can include spectral information represented as reflection coefficients for an all-pole noise model.
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The level field uses values from 0 to 127 to represent 0 to −127 dBov, as specified in RFC 3389 (2002). dBov is referenced to the system overload point; it is not a universal measurement of acoustic sound pressure in a room.
How RTP and SDP signal comfort noise
RTP payload types distinguish comfort-noise packets from packets carrying the selected audio codec. RFC 3389 specifies static payload type 13 with an 8,000 Hz RTP timestamp clock rate. Other clock rates require a dynamic payload-type mapping.
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When the CN format is offered for use, the SDP media description includes its payload type. If the CN payload type is omitted, that format will not be used. That omission alone does not establish that silence suppression is disabled; suppression and comfort-noise signaling are related but distinct behaviors.
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RFC 3389 standardizes the parameter format, not the algorithms that analyze or synthesize noise. Its guidance leaves the VAD, DTX, noise analysis and noise synthesis implementation-specific. Consequently, implementations can differ in:
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- when VAD classifies a signal as speech or inactivity;
- how often the sender refreshes the noise description, including whether updates are periodic or triggered by a significant background change;
- how the receiver turns the parameters into sound; and
- the resulting subjective sound quality and computational cost.
RFC 3551 describes comfort-noise frames as parameters for artificial noise that may be generated during silence to approximate background noise at the source. RFC 7874, published in 2016, lists RFC 3389 comfort noise among the audio capabilities required of WebRTC endpoints in that requirements document. That statement should not be taken by itself as proof of current support or identical behavior in every present-day WebRTC product.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why a call uses comfort noise
Absolute silence during a pause can sound like a dropped connection or a muted line. Comfort noise gives the listener a low-level indication that the call remains active while ordinary speech packets are suppressed. Because the receiver generates the sound from parameters, the sender need not transmit a continuous noise waveform during the gap.
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The standards define the format and its intended role, but they do not establish a universal bandwidth-saving figure or guarantee a particular perceived quality. Those outcomes depend on implementation and operating conditions.
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