15. A method comprising: extracting a plurality of features of a speech signal, the plurality of features being used for voice recognition; detecting voice activity within the speech signal, dividing the speech signal into speech frames and non-speech frames, wherein speech is detected in the speech frames and speech is not detected in the non-speech frames, providing an indication of detected voice activity, and generating output including the speech frames and excluding the non-speech frames; and transmitting the indication of detected voice activity and the output that includes the speech frames and excludes the non-speech frames over a wireless network to a voice recognition device in a distributed voice recognition system, wherein the indication of detected voice activity is transmitted over a separate channel than the output to identify the non-speech frames that were excluded from the output.
19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising: sending the output at a lower bit rate during silence periods than during non-silence periods.