1 (5)

Uppgjord - Prepared Faktaansvarig - Subject responsible Nr - No.

EPL/T/RP Heikkilä/Nordlund EPL/T/R 99:092
Dokansv/Godk - Doc respons/Approved Kontr - Checked Datum - Date Rev File

EPL/T/RPC 99-05-05 A tr_99_092=sqi_to_mos.fm

Information copy: Distribution:

EPL/T/RP All ERA/LVR/PR Saeed Yousefi

EPL/T/RC Tor Björn Minde
EPL/TMC Kari Korkala
EPL/T/TX Niclas Hugosson
EPL/T/TX Roger Byström
EPL/T/MP Robert Jonsson
ERA/T/VC Hans Hermansson
ERA/LVN/DPC Anders Carlsson

Conversion between
SQI and MOS

1 Summary
The scale chosen for the SQI measure is based on the MNRU stand-
ard [1], and expressed in dBQ. The reason for this choice is discussed
in [2]. In some cases, however, it might still be preferrable to use a
“MOS-like” scale, e.g. for comparison with other five-grade based rat-
ing methods [3].
This document describes one possible conversion which can be ap-
plied so that the resulting SQI scores are expressed in a scale compa-
rable to a MOS scale.
 2 (5)
Nr - No.
EPL/T/R 99:092
Datum - Date Rev File
1999-05-05 A tr_99_092=sqi_to_mos.fm

2 Conversion Curves
Figure 1 below shows the dBQ-to-MOS relation for three different sub-
jective tests. The relations can be computed since all three tests in-
clude MNRU samples which are also rated. By making a regression
over these samples the curves can be found.
The intuitive approach would be to select one of these curves and use
it for the conversion. However, such a method will actually produce a
biased conversion (the predicted MOS values will be too low). The rea-
son for this is described below, together with a correct conversion
method.

alld
5
GSM Interoperability
Is−136 Evaluation
Floating Point IS−641
4

3
MOS

−20 −10 0 10 20 30 40
dBQ

Figure 1 Regression curves from three different MOS tests.

One of the benefits with the dBQ scale is that it does not saturate, while
the MOS scale does saturate, especially in the low-quality region. To
be able to exploit this non-saturation feature of the dBQ scale, the rat-
ing procedure used when the SQI measure was developed could not
be a simple MOS test, for obvious reasons.
Even if another MOS scale; MOSLE (MOS Listening Effort) would be
possible to use in the low-quality region, the merging of the two MOS
scales would still pose a problem.
The approach chosen for the SQI listenings was to perform compara-
tive tests (A-B test) where the listener is to judge which of two samples
are the best one. In this way it was possible to compare MNRU sam-
ples with recorded real-life samples and thus finding the dBQ score for
each recorded sample.
 3 (5)
Nr - No.
EPL/T/R 99:092
Datum - Date Rev File
1999-05-05 A tr_99_092=sqi_to_mos.fm

The effect of this listening method is that at the high-quality region the
“goodness” (or the “quality”) of the samples are compared, while at the
low-quality region the “badness” (or the “ease of understanding”) are
compared. This gives a seamless transition between different percep-
tual ways of comparing, enabling the full usage of the dBQ scale.
Since effectively two “scales” (comparable to MOSQ and MOSLE) are
used, the relation between dBQ and only one of the scales, MOSQ, will
differ from the corresponding curves regressed from a “normal” MOS
test (as those shown in figure 1). This is most evident at medium to low
quality levels.
By performing a MOS test on real-life recorded material, and compar-
ing the results with the corresponding SQI values, a correct curve (fig-
ure 2) can be obtained. Note that this is only one possible curve, since
the shape of the curve will differ sligthly depending on the setup of the
MOS test.
By comparing this curve with the ones in figure 1 the difference in the
lower quality regions is obvious. The implication of this is that when an
A-B test method is used together with MNRU samples, the listener
does accept slightly worse MNRU conditions than during a MOS test
(which is expected due to the low-end saturation problem in a MOS
test).
conversion

4
MOSQ

−20 −15 −10 −5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

SQI

Figure 2 Conversion curve between SQI and a MOS-like scale.

Even if the curve above is only one possible example of a conversion,

the basic shape of the curve is expected to be approximately the same
for other variants of the curve. As with all MOS-like measures, compar-
isons of absolute levels between different rating methods should not
 4 (5)
Nr - No.
EPL/T/R 99:092
Datum - Date Rev File
1999-05-05 A tr_99_092=sqi_to_mos.fm

be done. However, by using the conversion curve, relative perform-

ance metrics (e.g. correlation towards subjective MOS scores) can be
used.

3 Conversion Table
The table below contains the numerical equivalence of the curve in fig-
ure 2. By using these values a conversion between SQI and a five-
grade MOS-like scale can be obtained.

SQI MOS
-20 1.01
-19 1.02
-18 1.02
-17 1.03
-16 1.03
-15 1.04
-14 1.04
-13 1.05
-12 1.06
-11 1.07
-10 1.09
-9 1.10
-8 1.12
-7 1.15
-6 1.17
-5 1.20
-4 1.24
-3 1.28
-2 1.34
-1 1.39
0 1.46
1 1.54
2 1.62
3 1.72
4 1.82
5 1.94
6 2.06
7 2.20
 5 (5)
Nr - No.
EPL/T/R 99:092
Datum - Date Rev File
1999-05-05 A tr_99_092=sqi_to_mos.fm

SQI MOS
8 2.34
9 2.48
10 2.63
11 2.78
12 2.93
13 3.07
14 3.21
15 3.34
16 3.46
17 3.57
18 3.67
19 3.76
20 3.84
21 3.91
22 3.97
23 4.02
24 4.07
25 4.11
26 4.15
27 4.17
28 4.20
29 4.22
30 4.24

4 References
[1] Modulated Noise Reference Unit; ITU-T P.810.
[2] TEMS SQI and MOS; Gunnar Heikkilä; OSQAR/AJ-013.
[3] Methods for Subjective Determination of Transmission Quality;
ITU-T P.800.