A tool for efficient protocol validation and testing

Reliable protocols require early-stage validation and testing. Due to the state explosion problem, in validation methods such as model checking (Atlee and Gannon, 1993), it may not be possible to test all the system states. We apply our state-of-the-art algorithm to compute the most critical states and branches to be tested. We prioritize this information to guide the validation of the protocol. We implemented this technology in a tool that visualizes the specifications of protocols with their testing priorities. Such a tool can also be used to identify the location of faults in the protocol when some tests failed. It provides information such as where in the protocol is most likely to have bugs. This paper considers the case when the specification of the protocol is given in Specification and Description Language (SDL, an ITU standard). Our technology is based on both the control flow and the data flow of the specifications. It first generates a control flow diagram from the specification and then automatically analyses the coverage features of the diagram. It collects the corresponding flow data during the simulation time for mapping to the control flow diagram. The coverage information for the original specification is then obtained from the coverage information of the flow diagram