Research And Implementation On Conformance Testing Of Multicast Protocols

Protocol Testing is an important technology which ensures the interworking and the reliable cooperation among different protocol implementations. We research the field in order to test the protocols of the high performance routers.Based on the deep reseach of Automated Network Validation Library,this paper gives the generic development method of conformance testing of the IGMP and PIM-DM protocol.First the paper introduces the current international standard ISO/1EC 9646,the relevant theory and method of protocol conformance testing .It also studys the ANVL and gives the generic method of multicast protocols test development. First testing development needs selection of method. The testing of end system and relay system is based on remote method and transverse testing method respectively.Second the design of test sequence have two parts: one is based on FSM and the other is based on test purpose.The paper first presents an algorithm and some basic diciplines of test sequence design , then present description of the test cases by TTCN and approach of realizing the test cases, at last discusses the efficiency of executing the test cases through automated execute, regression testing.Due to the complexity of the multicast protocols and that of the test itself, much care must be taken for the designation, organization and coding of the conformance test suite and the reference implementation of IGMP and PIM-DM. With the carefully designed test suite (including test data) and the reference implementation, the conformance test of IGMP and PIM-DM is accomplished. After the test activity including the test of high end routers of CISCO and the prototype developed by our own, many errors and problems are found and large amountoof technical details of IGMP and PIM-DM are known. All these will give a strong support for the development of the high performance core router of our own. One the other hand, during the test. the correctness and the validity of till the phases of the multicast protocol confonnance test is also proved indubitably.Through all these work, the test of multicast protocols as a whole has acquired quite a lot valuable references. The exploration of the test theory, test method for the regression testing of protocol conformance testing paves the way for the protocol test system of the next generation capable to regression test.