Section: New Results

Interoperability Testing

Participants : Alexandra Desmoulin, Francine Ngani, Ariel Sabiguero, César Viho.

Any real formal framework does not exist for interoperability testing area, contrary to conformance testing. Our purpose is to provide a formal framework (methods, algorithms and tools) that helps in generating efficient interoperability test suites. The model used here is an automata-like structure called IOLTS (Input Output Labelled Transition Systems). It is an LTS which distinguishes inputs, outputs and internal actions.

We have proposed a formal definition of the notion of interoperability, which has been considered by the testing community as one of the first real contributions in this area  [111] . This year we have studied the problem of quiescence management in interoperability testing. We prove that by taking into account potential quiescence of implementations, we can improve interoperability testing   [59] , [101] . Based on this results we developed algorithms that generate more accurate interoperability tests  [57] , [58] .We also study how a distributed approach (including remote approach) can help in efficiently testing components  [42] .

We have also developed methods and algorithms using formal methods for automatic conformance and interoperability tests generation for mobility protocols. The Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) have been used to validate these algorithms  [88] , [87] .

We have proposed some solutions for some issues regarding the last step of testing activity, where abstract test suites are translated to obtain executable test suites that are executed against real implementations. The new standardised TTCN3 language and the RIPng protocol have been used for this purpose  [94] , [93] .

On a pragmatic side, we try to validate our solutions for new generation network, mainly IPv6 related protocols. We have generated conformance and interoperability tests for significant IPv6 and 3GPP related protocols, like MIPv6 (Mobile IPv6), IPv4-IPv6 transition mechanisms (NAT-PT, 6to4), RIPng (Routing Internet Protocol for IPv6), etc. These tests have been used for many interoperability events such as the ETSI/Plugtest events (since 2000), and the Japanese TAHI events (since 2001).

We are also involved in the ``IPv6 Ready Logo Programme'' (see http://www.ipv6ready.org ) which is a world wide certification programme launched by the IPv6 Forum. We are responsible of the definition of technical requirements for the two phases of this programme. The Phase I started two years ago with real success. The second phase started this year, with stronger requirements.