Automated test generation for improved protocol testing

To enhance the overall quality of its network protocol testing process, Bellcore has developed TACIT, a toolkit for automated conformance and interoperability testing based on a formal and automated approach to test script generation. We first give a technical description of TACIT in which the different steps of the automated test script generation method are outlined, such as protocol specification and compilation, generic test script generation and executable test script encoding. We then relate how TACIT was experimentally used for testing of ISDN primary rate interface protocol. The results of this experiment are finally assessed and compared to the current script generation approach used at Bellcore