A Test Design Methodology for Protocol Testing

Communication protocol testing can be done with a test architecture consisting of remote Lower Tester and local Upper Tester processes. For real protocols, tests can be designed based on the formal specification of the protocol which uses an extended finite state machine model. The specification is transformed into a simpler form consisting of normal form transitions. It can then be modeled by a control and a data flow graph. The graphs are decomposed into subtours and data flow functions, respectively. Tests are designed by considering parameter variations of the input primitives of each data flow function and determining the expected outputs. The methodology gives complete test coverage of all data flow functions and control paths in the specification. Functional fault models are proposed for functions that are not formally specified.