Research And Design Of An Automated Testing Tool On HLR

HLR (Home Location Register) is one of the most important network elements inGSM and3Gcorenetwork. It's thecentral databaseofthemobile communication network,which stores mobile-user-related data, including user IDs, current locations, user data suchas user types and the businesses he has opened. HLR also stores dynamic data about theregion of the MSC where the roaming user registered. Signaling System No.7 (SS7) is oneof the most important technologies in the modern mobile communication network. It is thebasis of the underlyingimplementation of the communication network foundation. SS7 hasbecome an integral part of the mobile communication network. To realize theinteroperability of mobile communication services, different communication operators,particularly operators in different countries all adopt SS7 to control the exchange ofservices among operators. Most operators also use SS7 inside their own communicationnetworkstorealizethebilling,roamingandotherbusinesses.Software testing is divided into different categories from different point of views. Itcan be divided into white box, black box and gray box testing according to testingobjectives.Andaccordingtothestageofthesoftwaredevelopingprocess, it canbedividedinto unit testing, integration testing, validation testing, system testing and acceptancetesting. The regression testing of large-scale and multi-version product is most suitable forautomated testing because regression testing runs existing test cases that havecomprehensive test plans, testing data needed and execution results. These test cases arealwaysinalargenumberandusedrepeatedlyforalongterm.The automated testingsystem consists of two parts: the automated testing tool and thepost-processing module. In this paper, we design and implement an automated testing toolMATT (My Automated Testing Tool) based on HLR through the whole process fromrequirements analysis, preliminary design and detailed design to final implementation. Theoverall structure of MATT consists of five modules: the input module, the automatedmodule, the interactive module, the MGTS drive module and the NRSMISim tools drivermodule. Besides, the comparison processes of result reports of automated testing tools isdesignedindetail to generatereports that areeasytoreadandmanage.Weapplyblack-boxtestingto test MATTfrom the perspective of functional tests with 22 test cases. Finally, the pass rate is 100%. The testing strategy is to focus on the boundary conditions, because theboundariesandlimitsusuallyleadtoproblems.Here,wedescribethefivemodulesofMATT.Theinputmodulerealizestheautomaticreadingof system files. The interaction module realizes the interaction between MATTandthe logical server, and the database server, including FTPservice detection, login, updatingthe database, extracting messages, obtaining result reports, checking server status, openingtrace and initializing the database. The automatically executing module realizes theautomatically run of test cases, including the automatic run of state machines, monitorconnection, checking of run status of test cases, generating the results report, reading thereport and test case files. The MGTS drive module realizes the environment setup, obtainsshelf connection, gets the test cases, obtains parameters, installs Softshelf and accesses thestate machines. The NRSMISim drive module realizes the automatic running ofNRSMISimtoolsondatabaseservers.In this paper, we implement the functions of MATT, including automatic readingfunctions, test case auto-run features, interactive features, starting and running MGTSfeatures and running the NRSMISim tool. Input features include reading systemconfiguration files automatically and reading log files. Automated test features includerunning state machines, monitoring connections, checking status of test cases, generatingresult reports, reading the reports and the test case documents. Interactive features includeFTP services, logging in Logic Server, logging in Database Server, updating the databasefunction, extracting messages, getting the report files, the database initialization, testingserver status and openning the trace. MGTS driver features include configuring theenvironment,connectingShelf,obtainingtestcasesandparameters,installingSoftShelfandrunningstatemachines.Intheimplementationof MATT,thetest cases are storedintheform ofstatemachinesand data are stored as sql files to control versions. Defects found during testing aremanaged bythe reports. The defects are classified byseverityand then give the priorityforreference changes. We judge whether the testing phase is passed according to the pass rateofthecases.Firstofall,MATTextractsmessages fromthelogfiles,andthencomparewiththeexistingmessagefiles.Iftheyarematch,themessageofthecasepass;otherwise,itfails.Themessageparametererrorthemessagenumbererrorarepromptedcorrespondingly.Andthen MATT queries the database, and compares with existing data files. If the data match,the data of the case pass; otherwise it fails and lists the error tables and fields. Finally, ifboththemessagesmatchandthedatabasesmatch,thetestcasepasses.Analyzing the efficiency of MATT, we find that the regression testing of all test cases on HLR needs only 5.6 hours, and the accuracy is more than 95%. MATT not only greatlyreduces the consumption of both human and material resources, but also reduces errorscaused by humans. MATT, which can be successfully used in integration testing andregression testing relating to HLR, significantlyshortens the time interval of releasing newversionsandpatchesoftheHLRproduct,andprovidebetterqualityassurance.MATT lays between the fourth grade and fifth grade of the TMM reference model.Despite some gaps with the fifth grade, MATT has exceeded the fourth-grade standards,thus can meet various requirements of pre-made projects successfully. However, realizingthe automated testing tool that meets the fifth grade of the TMM reference model is whereweshouldmakeoureffortsinthefuture.