Workshop on Quality
Assurance at W3C
ETSI PTCC
Protocol and Testing Competence Centre
anthony.wiles@etsi.fr
 
About ETSI
- European Telecommunications
Standards Institute
- Develops a wide range of
specifications as Europe’s contribution to world-wide
standardisation of telecommunications and associated
domains
 - Over 600 Members, 4000
experts
 
 - Successful ETSI technologies
include
- GSM, 3G UMTS, HiperLan, TIPHON
(VoIP), DECT, TETRA, IN, ISDN (and B-ISDN) etc.
 
 - Visit our website
 - http://www.etsi.org
 
 
Producing Better
Standards
- The ETSI watchword is
INTEROPERABILITY
 - A well-defined, accurate and
unambiguous standard is key to the development of products based on
that standard
 - The ETSI membership believes that
the pragmatic validation of standards and testing of products based
on those standards greatly enhances the chances of
interoperability
 - Pragmatic approach
- should not delay the standardisation
process
 - and give real
added-value
 
 - ETSI has two unique resources for
validation and testing
- PTCC (Protocol and Testing
Competence Centre)
 - Bake-off Service
 
 
 
Verification
- Formal (automated) checking of the
internal consistency and correctness of the protocol
 - Difficult (impossible) to apply on
informal specifications
 - SDL tools provide powerful
simulation environments
- discover protocol deadlocks,
livelocks, unreachable states, implicit consumption of signals,
unused data etc.
 
 
 
Validation
- Checking that the protocol really
provides the (logical) functionality expected of it
 - Only limited validation can be
applied to informal specifications
 - SDL tools provide powerful
simulation environments
 - visualization as MSCs
 
 
… and
Testing
- Conformance Testing checks that the
implementation provides the functionality defined by the (standard)
requirements
 
 
The Development
Process
Conformance
Testing
- ETSI produces Conformance Test
Suites
- does not perform the
testing
 - does not perform
certification
 
 - Have streamlined the process to
concentrate on areas related to interopability
- critical behaviour, basic
interconnection
 - options, combinations of
options
 - error recovery behaviour
 
 - Use STFs (Specialist Task
Forces)
 - Feedback to TBs an integral part of
the process
 
 
Testing
Specifications
ISO/IEC-9646
Typical Test
Suites
- 3G (3GPP)
 - GSM
 - GPRS
 - TETRA
 - TIPHON
 - DECT
 - IN, INAP
 - ISDN, B-ISDN
 - VB5
 - Etc.
 
 
Use of
TTCN
- Tree and Tabular Combined
Notation:
- Versions 1 and 2 developed by ISO
SC21 WG3 (1984 - 1997) as part of the widely-used ISO/IEC 9646
conformance testing standard
 
- ISO/IEC 9646-3 (edition 2) and ITU-T
X.292
 
- Version 3 developed by ETSI TC MTS
(1998 - 2000) 
 Specialist Task Forces STF 133 &
STF 156 
 
 
Advantages of Using a
Standardised Test Language
- One test notation for many testing
applications
 - Cheaper education and training
costs
 - Facilitates the application of a
common methodology
 - Easier maintenance of test
suites
 - Off-the-shelf tools
 - Universally understood syntax and
operational semantics
 - Tests concentrate on the meaning of
the test
 - Constant maintenance of the
language
 
 
Motivation for
Producing TTCN-3
- Modernization
- technology has changed since TTCN
was first developed
 
 - Wider scope of
application
- should be applicable to many kinds
of test applications not just conformance (development, system,
integration, iop …)
 
 - Harmonization
- should be the first choice for test
specifiers, implementors and users both for standardized test
suites ...
 - … and as a generic solution in
industrial product development
 
 
 
Scope of
TTCN-3
- Kinds of testing to which TTCN-3
could be applied
-  Conformance		-
Interoperability
 
-  Configuration		-
Compatibility
 
-  Performance		- Stress
 
-  Robustness		-
Integration
 
-  Functional		- Load
 
-  Reliability		- Fault
tolerance
 
-  Scalability		- Degraded
mode
 
-  Unit			- Product
 
-  Development		- Design
 
-  Interface		- System
 
 
 
Main Capabilities of
TTCN-3
- Core format is a text based
language
 - Core can be viewed as text or in
various presentation formats
 
 
Use With Other
Languages
- TTCN can be integrated with other
'type and value' systems
 
 
Major Elements of
TTCN-3
- Built-in and user-defined generic
data types (e.g., to define messages, service primitives,
information elements, PDUs)
 
 
Example Core (Text)
Format
Example Tabular
Format
Example Graphical
Format
Use of TTCN-3 for XML
Tests
- Open Settlement Protocol
(OSP)
- EP TIPHON XML-based
protocol
 - work on test specs. will start
mid-April (STF 176)
 - will use TTCN-3 (Core
Language)
 
 - 3GPP
- currently extensively using
TTCN-2
 - initially will use TTCN-3 for
testing XML-based protocols
 - work on test specs. will start
2002
 
 
 
Use of TTCN-3 for SIP
Tests
- IETF Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP)
- EP TIPHON SIP Profile
 - mainly telephony aspects
(SIP-T)
 
 - Work has started (STF 166 and STF
176 plus voluntary effort from Nokia, Ericsson, GMD Fokus (Testing
Tech), ACACIA, FSCOM)
- initial set Test Purposes
exist
 - have a number of executable tests
running
 - will continue until Dec.
2001
 
 
 
Contact
details
- Phone
 - +33 (0)4 92 94 43 18
 
- Fax
 - +33 (0)4 93 65 38 51
 
- e-mail
 - pex@etsi.fr
 
- Web
 - http://www.etsi.org/ptcc