An advanced TMN test system-TSE-P

Misfunctionalities in management applications could cause unpredictable crashes in telecommunication network. On the one hand, extensive and time-consuming test sessions have to be executed before bringing such applications into service. On the other hand, in a highly competitive market the "time to market" period is decisive. Therefore, the time to make a well tested system work should be as short as possible. The complete behaviour specified by a given information model, both the formally defined behaviour (e.g. in the property list and in name-bindings) and the non-formal text in the GDMO behaviour template, has to be tested. The paper presents a highly sophisticated test system for TMN (telecommunication management network) applications named TSE-P (Test and Simulation Environment Programmable) which is able to test all aspects of the behaviour definitions. It simulates the counterpart of the system under test (SUT) by taking the complementary role in the communication setting-manager or agent. For testing the behaviour of the SUT it implements the same information model as the SUT. Furthermore, TSE-P offers tool support for automatic generation of test scripts, for automatic analysis of test results, and for protocol testing. It can be automatically adapted to different information models by running compilers on information model sources. The user interface is entirely graphical so the operation of the test system is very easy to handle.