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Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. The Test Suite Framework Standard

2. Conformance Testing

3. PICS/PIXIT

4. Tree and Tabular Combined Notation—The Language

5. Suite Overview Part

6. Declarations Part

7. Constraints Part

8. Dynamic Part

9. Test Component Explanation

10. The Behavior Table

11. TTCN Additions and Modules

12. Graphical and Textual Notations and Application Areas

Self-Test

Glossary

PDF of this tutorial

Definition
Tree and tabular combined notation (TTCN, International Standards Organization [ISO]/International Electrotechnical Commission [IEC] 9646-3) is a notation standardized by the ISO for the specification of tests for communication systems and has been developed within the framework of standardized conformance testing. A TTCN–specified test suite is a collection of various test cases together with all of the declarations and components needed.

Overview
Over the last decade, the size of produced software has increased dramatically. More and more systems are multiprocess, distributed, and executed in a heterogeneous environment. Testing has become increasingly important, and for complex systems thousands of test cases must be run. Generation and execution of test cases is a time-consuming and error-prone task. Within the field of telecommunications, the need for testing systems is further complicated by the need for systems to conform to an increasing amount of standards. ISO and Comité Consultatif International Telegraphique et Telephonique (CCITT) (International Telecommunications Union–Telecommunications Standardization Sector [ITU–T]) have addressed this problem. The international standard ISO/IEC 9646 defines, among other things, the TTCN notation for verification and validation of both standards and their implementations. TTCN is recognized throughout the world by numerous standard bodies and testing committees.