DTX & DRX

DTX : Discontinuous Transmission
When an MS is engaged but no speech signals are transferred, the MS sends only comfort noises periodically to the peer end. The data volume of these comfort noises is smaller than the volume of normal speech data.
An MS does not keep transmitting speech signals during a call. Typically, only 40% of the duration of the call is occupied for speech transmission. During the non-speech transmission period, an MS reduces the transmitted data to suppress the interference to other channels and to help reserve system resources. In addition, DTX relieves the workload of the TX module of the MS. The MS can enjoy a longer call duration and standby time. DTX affects only the transmission of TCH frames.


DTX can reduce the transmit power of an MS when the MS does not receive any speech signals.
The quality of speech services in the entire radio network is thus improved.
DTX involves the following technical aspects:
·         Silence Descriptor (SID) frames
·         Voice Activity Detection (VAD)
·          Global measurement and local measurement

When there is no speech signal transmission during a call, the MS sends SID frames to the BTS.
The VAD enables the MS to accurately detect speech signals

DRX : Discontinuous Reception
An MS in idle mode detects only the paging channels within a specific paging group. When other paging groups send paging messages to an MS, the MS blocks the receive channel.
Each MS is mapped to a paging group, and each paging group is mapped to a paging subchannel in the serving cell. When operating in idle mode, an MS detects the paging messages broadcast by the system only on the mapped paging sub-channel. The MS blocks other paging sub-channels by powering off some hardware of the MS, and this also saves power.