Interconnectability testing method-AICTS

The OSI (open systems interconnection) has been increasingly recognized and used for interconnection among different communications systems. Usually, conformance testing or interoperability testing is done to confirm the interconnectability of those different systems. But it is usually recognized that only these types of testing are inadequate for interconnectability confirmation. We have developed an interconnectability testing architecture by extending the architecture currently used for conformance and interoperability testing. With this architecture as the base, we are making efforts to develop an interconnectability testing system named AICTS (AIC's Interconnectability Testing System). Testing with this system is intended to complement ordinary conformance and interoperability tests. So far, we have completed the design and development of the system. We discuss our interconnectability testing architecture as an extension of the existing architecture for conformance and interoperability testing. We explain the structure of our testing system and present a test execution example.