A DFSM-Based Protocol Conformance Testing and Diagnosing Method

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Zhang, Xinchang | Yang, Meihong | Geng, Guanggang | Luo, Wanming

Affiliations: Shandong Key Laboratory of Computer Networks, Shandong Computer Science Center, Jinan 250014, China, e-mail: xinczhang@hotmail.com, yangmh@keylab.net | Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China, e-mail: gengguanggang@cnnic.cn, lwm@cnic.cn

Abstract: In the protocol conformance testing, many existing test methods can effectively detect the possible faults of the implementation under test. However, it is difficult to diagnose the found faults in terms of the test results. This paper presents a diagnosable input/output (DIO) sequence, to differentiate a state from other states under a given condition. We further propose a two-tier protocol conformance testing and diagnosing method based on DIO sequences. The proposed method can effectively detect and diagnose the possible faults of the implementation of a protocol.

Keywords: protocol conformance testing, fault detection, fault diagnosis, DFSM model

Journal: Informatica, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 447-469, 2011