Towards an Integrated Test Methodology for Advanced Communication Systems

Advanced distributed systems, like real-time and multimedia systems, behave correctly if functional and non-functional requirements are implemented in accordance with the respective specifications. Functional requirements describe the correct input/output behaviour of a system only, whereas non-functional requirements cover aspects like real-time, performance or robustness. Unfortunately, there exist no testing methodology applicable to advanced distributed systems to assess the compliance with functional and non-functional requirements. In this paper a classification of types of testing is presented and the requirements for an advanced testing methodology and framework are identified, the state of the art of testing distributed systems is summarized and the steps towards an advanced integrated testing methodology are described.