Theory and implementation of Real-Time testing in EPA

As a member of Real-Time Ethernet(RTE) family, EPA is the first independent intellectual property field bus national standard of China and listed as Common Profile Family 14(CPF14) of IEC 61784-2 Real-Time Ethernet application principles. Performance indicators (PI) shall be used to specify capabilities of an RTE end device and a RTE communication network as well as to specify requirements of an application. But there is no uniform test method existing due to different RTE technology having different realization. As to EPA, deterministic scheduling mechanism is guaranteed by CSME and IEEE1588. The EPA System Being Tested is made up of Implementation Under Test (IUT) and Upper Test Agent (UTA). The IUT is the object being tested. The UTA is a method which can show some behavior of IUT and exert control over the upper service boundary of IUT. UTA can execute our test order and assist test software to achieve specific test result. At the same time, how to make an Abstract Test Suite (ATS) of real-time test is also given referring to ISO/IEC 9646-2. An example of throughput RTE test is given at last part and some explanation is shown according to the actual test data. The test theory and test implementation motioned in this paper are not limited to RTE only, it can be applied in any other type of communication test if amended properly.