An Introduction to TTCN-3, Second Edition

This unique book provides a fully revised and up-to-date treatment of the TTCN-3 language

TTCN-3 is an internationally standardised test language with a powerful textual syntax which has established itself as a global, universal testing language. Application of TTCN-3 has been widened beyond telecommunication systems to areas such as the automotive industry, internet protocols, railway signalling, medical systems, and avionics.

An Introduction to TTCN-3 gives a solid introduction to the TTCN-3 language and its uses, guiding readers though the TTCN-3 standards, methodologies and tools with examples and advice based on the authors' extensive real-world experience. All the important concepts and constructs of the language are explained in a step-by-step, tutorial style, and the authors relate the testing language to the overall test system implementation, giving the bigger picture.

This second edition of the book has been updated and revised to cover the additions, changes and extensions to the TTCN-3 language since the first version was published. In addition, this book provides new material on the use of XML, test framework design and LTE testing with TTCN-3.

Key Features:

• Provides a fully revised and up-to-date look at the TTCN-3 language
• Addresses language standardization, tool implementation and applying TTCN-3 in real world scenarios such as VoIP and LTE testing
• Explores recent advances such as TTCN-3 core language extensions on type parameterization, behavior types, real time and performance testing
• Introduces the use of ASN.1 and XML with TTCN-3
• Written by experts in the field

This book is an ideal reference for test engineers, software developers, and standards professionals. Graduate students studying telecommunications and software engineering will also find this book insightful.

About the Authors

Colin Willcock is currently manager for 3GPP Radio Access Network Standardisation at Nokia Siemens Networks. He received a BSc from Sheffield University in 1986, an MSc from Edinburgh University in 1987, and a PhD in parallel computation from the University of Kent in 1992. Colin was part of the core ETSI team that developed the TTCN-3 language and spent many years leading and participating in the TTCN-3 language maintenance. In the past, he has worked on numerous standardisation efforts at ETSI, ITU-T, and 3GPP, focusing on various aspects of formal specification languages. He was the project leader for the European TT-medal project, which strove to improve test methodology and languages for software-intensive systems and also lead the D-MINT project, which aimed to improve test methodology and languages for software-intensive systems and explored the use of model-based testing in an industrial context.

Thomas Deiß is a Senior System Specialist at Nokia Siemens Networks. He received an MSc in Computer Science and a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Kaiserslautern in 1990 and 1999. He is currently specifying transport features for mobile communication systems. Before joining Nokia Siemens Networks, Thomas developed the Nokia Research Center TTCN-2 and TTCN-3-based test systems, developed course materials and taught courses about TTCN-3, and has participated for several years in TTCN-3 standardisation. He was a contributor to the European TT-medal and D-MINT projects, which strove to improve test methodology and languages for software-intensive systems and explored the use of model-based testing in an industrial context.

Stephan Tobies is a Software Design Engineer at the European Microsoft Innovation Center where he works on software verification. He received an MSc in Computer Science and a PhD in Natural Sciences from the University of Technology in Aachen in 1998 and 2001. He has been actively involved with TTCN-3 until 2005 while working as a Senior Research Engineer at Nokia Research Center. During that time, he has been a member of ETSI Strategic Task Force 253, which was responsible for the maintenance and extension of the TTCN-3 standard. He has been a lead developer of an industry-grade TTCN-3 tool and has been working in the area of TTCN-3 language development and test system implementation.

Stefan Keil is a software developer at Research In Motion. He received an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Ruhr University in Bochum in 1996. Stefan has worked for Alcatel as a programmer in the field of fixed line communications and a technical trainer for broadband communication fibre technology. From 2000 to 2007 he worked as a Research Engineer at Nokia Research Center in the area of test system implementation, TTCN-3 tool development, and training. At Nokia Siemens Network he worked from 2007 to 2009 in software specification for base station software. In 2009 Stefan started working for Research In Motion in the field of embedded software development on end user devices.

Until December 2004, Federico Engler has been a Principal Engineer at Nokia Research Center. He studied computer science at Uppsala University from 1989 till 1993. After that, he started working for Telelogic, where he was involved in standardisation issues around TTCN-2, TTCN-3, and ASN.1, as well as TTCN-3 tool development. In January 2003, Federico started working for Nokia in the area of automated test solutions, which involved the mapping, documentation, and synchronisation of test-related activities at a Nokia-wide level. He has also been involved in activities around improved visualisation and documentation of tests and test results within Nokia. Federico is currently working for TeliaSonera CIS where he leads the development of portal-based telecommunications applications.

Stephan Schulz is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Conformiq Inc. He received an MSc and PhD in Computer Engineering from University of Arizona at Tucson in 1997 and 2001. Prior to his positions at Conformiq he has worked as a resident testing expert at ETSI's Centre for Testing and Interoperability as well as a Senior Research Engineer at Nokia Research Center. Throughout his career he has been consulting different users and organisations on TTCN-3 deployment as well as test suite and test system development. He has been an editor of the TTCN-3 Runtime Interface (TRI) standard, lead TTCN-3 architect in various ETSI Specialist Task Forces, designer of ETSI's official TTCN-3 web site, and author of many publications on the testing of text-based protocols with TTCN-3. He has been developing and teaching TTCN-3 courses as well as co-chaired four TTCN-3 User Conferences. In 2010, he was elected chairman of ETSI's Technical Committee Methods for Testing and Specification which is overseeing TTCN-3 standardisation.