A novel conformance testing technique for Agent Interaction Protocols

Author

Mokhati, Farid ; Badri, Mourad ; Zerrougui, Salim

Author_Institution

Dept. of Math. & Comput. Sci. LAMIS Lab., Tebessa Univ. Oum el Bouaghi Univ.- Algeria, Oum El Bouaghi, Algeria

fYear

2013

fDate

7-9 Oct. 2013

Firstpage

485

Lastpage

495

Abstract

Agent Interaction Protocols (AIP) play a crucial role in multi-agent systems development. AIP allow specifying interactions (sequences of messages) between agents. As agent-oriented development emerges, testing agent-based software is receiving increased research attention. We present, in this paper, a novel conformance testing technique for agent interaction protocols. The approach supports an incremental testing strategy that considers both agent and society testing of Multi-Agent Systems. It uses aspect-oriented technology to support and monitor the testing process. The proposed technique consists in two main phases: (1) Generating adequate test cases from a formal description of Multi-Agent Systems´ behavior, and (2) Verifying the execution of test cases. The technique is supported by a visual tool (AIPTE: Agent Interaction Protocols Testing Environment). A case study is presented to illustrate the approach.

Keywords

aspect-oriented programming; conformance testing; multi-agent systems; program testing; program verification; software agents; AIPTE visual tool; agent interaction protocol testing environment; agent-based software testing; agent-oriented development; aspect-oriented technology; conformance testing technique; formal multiagent system behavior description; incremental testing strategy; message sequences; multiagent system development; test case execution verification; test case generation; testing process monitoring; Instruments; Multi-agent systems; Proposals; Protocols; Silicon; System testing; Agent Interaction Protocol; AspectJ; Complete Testing Sequence; Conformance Testing; JADE; Multi-Agent Systems; Reduced Testing Sequence;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Science and Information Conference (SAI), 2013

Conference_Location

London

Type

conf

Filename

6661783