Abstract
The complexity of embedded systems has been growing in
recent years. Competition in the international markets
has increased the quality requirements of products which
contain embedded systems. It has also required shorter
development times and several customer specific versions
of a product to be developed. As a result, the cost of
testing has increased up to 50 % of the total manpower in
a development project. Therefore, automation of the
routine work included in testing of embedded systems and
their software has been estimated to be significant in
lowering the costs and increasing the quality of
products.
The focus of this thesis is on simulation based
integration test automation of embedded communication
software. The objective is to raise the automation level
in host based integration testing and to make testing and
debugging easier for a human tester.
A set of basic principles for integration test automation
of embedded communication software is developed and
studied. The principles are based on the global
controllability and observability of testing and for time
simulation, which is used to reduce non-determinism
appropriately to enable repeatable test sessions and to
make testing easier for a human tester. The constructed
integration testing platform enables test automation in
test execution and test result analysis in a practical
way. The platform is generic in the sense that it allows
use of different implementation technologies for protocol
simulations and test cases, and can thus form a backbone
for the different kinds of protocol test systems.
The integration testing platform has been exploited in
several industrial development projects. Two different
protocol software test systems are discussed to
demonstrate the results. The evaluation indicates that
the host environment is very applicable to testing of the
logical correctness of embedded software and for
integration test automation. The software under test and
its operational environment can be controlled and
observed in a flexible and efficient way. Test execution
can be carried out in a repeatable manner and test
results can be derived automatically. In addition, an
unlimited tracing capability and automated regression
testing are facilitated along with synchronous debugging
of the distributed test system.
Original language | English |
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Qualification | Licentiate Degree |
Awarding Institution |
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Supervisors/Advisors |
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Place of Publication | Espoo |
Publisher | |
Print ISBNs | 951-38-5070-6 |
Publication status | Published - 1997 |
MoE publication type | G3 Licentiate thesis |