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Testing hybrid systems with TTCN-3 embedded

An extension of the TTCN-3 language

  • TTCN-3
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Abstract

A testing language typically provides a set of test automation statements that allows for a systematic definition and automatic application of stimulation data (i.e. messages or signals) to a system under test. Moreover, it eases the assessment of the system’s reaction by providing customizable evaluation statements and functions. TTCN-3, the Testing and Test Control Notation, already provides universal and powerful concepts to describe tests for discrete, message-based systems. However, software-based control systems that are used to control physical processes often show continuous quantities that can be only poorly stimulated and assessed by means of the currently available language constructs in TTCN-3. In this article, we show how this problem can be solved by extending the TTCN-3 language. We introduce an extension of TTCN-3, namely TTCN-3 embedded, that provides concepts and constructs that directly address the specification of tests for continuous and hybrid real time systems. The extension includes the notion of streams that can be used to represent continuous quantities over time. In addition, TTCN-3 has been extended with the concepts of stream-based ports, sampling, equation systems, and with additional control flow structures. The concepts are integrated with standard TTCN-3 and allow for defining test cases that handle continuous quantities, as well as discrete state changes and the exchange of messages within the same concept space. The feasibility of the approach is shown by providing a small example from the automotive industry.

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Notes

  1. To support nested scope units due to nested and potentially recursive function calls or altstep calls, the program pointer, as well as the functions \(loc\) and \(val\), realize a stack-like functionality. The signatures of these functions are defined to the effect that they provide sequences of dynamic functions as return values.

  2. We do not reflect the interaction on the level of the TTCN-3 TRI interface in this article. We simply assume that changing the stream values triggers the respective TRI functions to get or propagate the messages to the environment.

  3. The synchronization of distributed hardware clocks can be achieved by common methods such GPS time synchronization or using the NTP protocol. However, the actual technique how to realize the hardware clock synchronization with \(c_0\) is not part of the testing language and thus is not discussed further here.

  4. The duration operation is defined in Sect. 3.6.9.

  5. Please note that most of the sub-structure of a mode is in fact optional (see grammar above). To ease the specification of the operational semantics, the optional blocks are considered to appear non-optional but potentially empty in the AST.

  6. TTCN-3 receiving operations are the operations that capture asynchronous events like incoming TTCN-3 messages or timeouts.

  7. Goto jumps are only allowed in a sequential environment, thus inside sequential modes or on the top level of a composition (i.e. directly on the test case level). Moreover, goto jumps are not allowed to violate the composition hierarchy, thus it is not possible to jump to a parent mode or into a child mode.

  8. The project TEMEA “Testing Specification Technology and Methodology for Embedded Real-Time Systems in Automobiles” [33] is co-financed by the European Union. The funds originate from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

  9. Please note that the term symbol/ symbol in the table denotes the mapping of the test interface symbols to the model interface symbols.

  10. The wait statement has not been defined formally in this article, however it can be simply realized by an empty cont block with a parameterizable duration.

  11. Please note that we had to scale the signals in the graph so that the wave form of the different signals remained visible. That is, the amplitudes of the signals are not directly comparable.

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  1. Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin, Germany

    Juergen Grossmann

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  1. Juergen Grossmann
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Correspondence to Juergen Grossmann.

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Grossmann, J. Testing hybrid systems with TTCN-3 embedded . Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 16, 247–267 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-013-0283-0

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