Broadcom launches a new codec open source. BV codec was designed from the ground up to be optimized for voice transmission over IP networks. The main design goal of BroadVoice was to make the coding delay and codec complexity as low as possible while maintaining output speech quality as close to transparent as possible. The following list summarizes the attributes of BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice32:

Low Delay (Latency): algorithmic buffering delay of merely 5 ms (compared with 15 to 40 ms of most competing codecs). Typical end-to-end delay in VoIP systems includes delays due to codec buffering, processing, transmission/decoder bit-stream buffering, real-time OS multi-tasking, propagation, network nodes, jitter buffering, etc. If the packet size is the same as the codec frame size, a general rule is that the one-way end-to-end delay is typically around 5 x codec frame size + look-ahead. Based on this formula, the following figure compares the end-to-end delay of many speech codecs. Note that sample-based or extremely low-delay codecs such as G.711, G.726, G.728, and G.722 offer no real delay advantage over BroadVoice because they typically have to use a buffer to fill a packet of at least 5 ms anyway (packet header overhead is too high for packet sizes < 5 ms) 
 

Low Complexity: much lower MIPS requirements than most competing codecs (typically 1/3 to 1/2 of comparable ITU-T G.72x codecs), also lower memory requirement than most competing codecs. The following figures compare the computational complexity in terms of Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS), the RAM memory requirement, and total memory footprint requirement on a typical 16-bit fixed-point commercial DSP.

 

High Quality: equivalent or better speech quality than most competing codecs in PESQ comparisons and in extensive formal subjective MOS listening tests conducted by AT&T Labs, COMSAT Labs, and Dynastat, Inc

Moderate Bit-Rate: at 2 bits/sample, coding efficiency is higher than G.711, G.726, and G.722 and comparable to many other codecs

Availability: Broadcom is providing both the floating-point and fixed-point C source code of BroadVoice16 and BroadVoice 32 under an open source license and on a royalty-free basis. 

To download BV Codec and more information press here

I see that they are available in some versions of Counterpath’s X-Lite and Eyebeam soft phones. Support for these codecs in hardware is something that I’m yet to determine.