GPRS Function Test using TTCN

Functional and conformance testing of new standardized services and protocols is a challenging task as standards may change during implementation and the test system has to be adapted to the system under test continuously. This paper describes how modular and concurrent TTCN was deployed for validation of the GPRS support nodes and reports on the experience collected

Ensuring interoperability between network elements in next generation networks

Next Generation Networks (NGNs), based on the Internet Protocol (IP), implement several services such as IP-based telephony and are beginning to replace the classic telephony systems. Due to the development and implementation of new powerful services these systems are becoming increasingly complex. Implementing these new services (typically software-based network elements) is often accompanied by unexpected and erratic behaviours which can manifest as interoperability problems. The reason for this caused by insufficient testing at the developing companies. The testing of such products is by nature a costly and time-consuming exercise and therefore cut down to what is considered the maximum acceptable level. Ensuring the interoperability between network elements is a known challenge. However, there exists no concept of which testing methods should be utilised to achieve an acceptable level of quality. The objective of this thesis was to improve the interoperability between network elements in NGNs by creating a testing scheme comprising of three diverse testing methods: conformance testing, interoperability testing and posthoc analysis. In the first project a novel conformance testing methodology for developing sets of conformance test cases for service specifications in NGNs was proposed. This methodology significantly improves the chance of interoperability and provides a considerable enhancement to the currently used interoperability tests. It was evaluated by successfully applying it to the Presence Service. The second report proposed a post-hoc methodology which enables the identification of the ultimate causes for interoperability problems in a NGN in daily operation. The new methods were implemented in the tool IMPACT (IP-Based Multi Protocol Posthoc Analyzer and Conformance Tester), which stores all exchanged messages between network elements in a database. Using SQL queries, the causes for errors can be found efficiently. Overall the presented testing scheme improves significantly the chance that network elements interoperate successfully by providing new methods. Beyond that, the quality of the software product is raised by mapping these methods to phases in a process model and providing well defined steps on which test method is the best suited at a certain stage

Wireless Authentication Solution and TTCN-3 based Test Framework for ISO-15118 Wireless V2G Communication

Vehicle to grid (V2G) communication for electric vehicles and their charging points is already well established by the ISO 15118 standard. The standard allows vehicles to communicate with the charging station using the power cable, i.e. a wired link, but it is improved to enable wireless (WLAN) links as well. This paper aims to provide an implementation accomplishes a wireless authentication solution (WAS). With that the electric vehicles can establish V2G connection when approaching the charging pool, then identify and authenticate the driver and/or the vehicle. Furthermore, the paper presents a TTCN-3 based validation and verification (V&V) framework in order to test the conformance of the prototype implementation against the standard

Métodos y Herramientas para el Diseño y Verificación de Sistemas de Comunicaciones Móviles

El objetivo de esta Tesis ha sido la consecución de tecnología para el diseño y mantenimiento eficientes, en coste temporal y económico, de Sistemas de Pruebas para equipos de comunicaciones inalámbricas. El proceso de diseño elaborado se ha basado en un conjunto de principios básicos: uso de lenguajes y notaciones ITU, independencia de la plataforma de ejecución y uso de herramientas comerciales. En esta Tesis se describe: a) Una arquitectura genérica para Sistemas de Pruebas. b) Una Metodología de Diseño de Sistemas de Pruebas. c) Un conjunto de herramientas de soporte. d) Una propuesta de metodología para el modelado con SDL. e) La aplicación a Sistemas de Pruebas de capa física de la arquitectura, métodos y herramientas utilizados en el área de protocolos. f) Un conjunto de implementaciones que validan las aportaciones anteriores

Methodology for enterprise interoperability assessment

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresWith the evolution of modern enterprises and the increasing market competitiveness, the creation of ecosystems with large amounts of data and knowledge generally needing to be exchanged electronically, is arising. However, this enterprise inter and intra-connectivity is suffering from interoperability issues. Not visible when it is effective, the lack of interoperability poses a series of challenging problems to the industrial community, which can reduce the envisaged efficiency and increase costs. Those problems are mostly caused by misinterpretations of data at the systems level, but problems at the organizational and human levels may pose equivalent difficulties. Existing research and technology provides several frameworks to assist the development of collaborative environments and enterprise networks with well-defined methods to facilitate interoperability. Nonetheless, the interoperability process is not guaranteed and is not easily sustainable, changing upon frequent market and requirement variations. For these reasons, there is a need for a testing methodology to assess the capability of enterprises to cooperate at a certain point in time. This dissertation proposes a methodology to assess that capability, with a corresponding framework to evaluate the interoperability process, applying eliminatory tests to assess the structure of the organizations, the conceptual models and their implementation. This work contributes to increase the chances enterprises have of interoperating effectively, and enables the adoption of extraordinary measures to improve their current interoperability situation

Interoperability on low power devices

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresModel transformation is the process of turning one data format into another according to a specification that contains the operations needed to accomplish it. Therefore it assumes a relevant role on handling interoperability on an “Internet of Things” environment composed by interconnected heterogeneous things with heterogeneous information. However, operate interoperability specifications on this environment is challenging, because model transformation technologies were developed considering an environment composed of devices with processing power and memory, as opposed to the environment exposed. The proposed solution consists in a specific approach, the clear separation of run-time and design time processes and the redefinition of formats used to describe model data and interoperability specification without changing their information. To do so an execution engine architecture is specified, able to execute model transformations according to a lite model data format and an interoperability specification defined as part of the solution

An integration bridge for heterogeneous e-service environments

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresHome automation has evolved from a single integration of services (provided by devices, equipment, etc.) in the environment to a more broad integration of these core services with others(external to the environment) to create some added-value services for home users. This presents a key challenge of how to integrate disparate and heterogeneous e-service networks. To this, there exist already some good approaches but with some deficiencies. First, they fail to put in place some expeditious integration approach for having services registered across service domains. And then, do not provide a good method for having target services be transparently invoked from within the source environment. Thus, an enhanced integration concept is needed for tackling these challenges. As a solution, this work proposes an integration bridge concept, composed of two key elements: one, an interoperability bridge to go from service descriptions in the target environment format to service announcement in the source environment; and two, a service bridge, to have an image of the target service exist in the source environment as a service in itself. The concept has been tested and validated in JXTA-P2P source and W3C-WebServices target environments that much relate to Home Automation scenarios