ALICE: a layer independent conformance equipment

In parallel with standardization work in the area of communication software, the interest is rapidly growing for testing methods and tools to assess that protocol implementations conform to the relevant standards and are capable of interworking with other products. A description given of a testing system named ALICE (a layer independent conformance testing), the main feature of which is to be as independent as possible from the layer in which the protocol being tested lies. After a brief overview of the background concepts for protocol testing, the global architecture and the internal structure of the system are described together with the major design choices