Data-com Testing In Software QA
Protocol testing is a branch of Software Testing focusing on testing of Network protocols
Communication Protocol testing is a generic term used by companies working in communication industry for testing of different protocols in domains of Routing, Switching, Wireless, VoIP, Security, Telecom etc…
Product companies like Cisco, Nortel, Juniper, Alcatel, Huawei … etc have networking devices like routers, switches, modems, wireless access-points, firewalls etc These devices uses different protocols to communicate ,for eg: Cisco routers uses EIGRP,OSPF etc to exchange routing information ,so here protocol testing means checking whether EIGRP protocol and OSPF protocol are working fine as mentioned in the respective standards.
Protocol testing is also known as Communication protocol testing or Data-com protocol testing. These terms come from the fact that these devices under tested mainly used for data communication (for eg: routers are used to carry data in internet).
Most of the protocols used in Networking are standardized by RFCs or IEEE, Testing these protocols involves the verification of the algorithm, packet structure, timers, databases, functionality, performance, scalability, interoperability etc…
RFC are open standards and any one can access it, also suggest new ideas to improve the protocol. All the IEEE standards are not publicly accessible but few are free to download.
Data-com testing requires hardware devices like routers or switches, tools for packet capturing and analyzing, Traffic generators to send real time traffic , and other analyzers to measure the throughput, performance ,scalability etc
Usually protocol testing is done by connecting a DUT (device under test) to other devices like routers/switches and configuring the protocol in it. Tools like wireshark, IxExplorer, IxNetworks, Agilent router tester, Spirent tester etc are then used to verify different protocol functionalities…
When companies like Cisco, Juniper etc have their own teams working on both protocol development and testing, companies like Zframez Technologies, Agilent etc are focusing on development of traffic generating tools and services. For further reading about protocol testing , you can visit zframez.com
Different Protocols Used in Network Communication
L2:
IEEE 802.1 D, STP
IEEE 802.1 W, RSTP
IEEE 802.1 S , MSTP
IEEE 802.1 ad, Link Aggregation & LACP
IEEE 802.1x, Port Based Authentication
ARP
VLAN
Q in Q, Vlan stacking
Port Mirroring & Monitoring
PPP
M LPPP
HDLC
Frame Relay
ATM
L3:
Static Routing
ICMP
Rip V1, Rip V2
OSPF V2
IGRP, EIGRP
BGP V4
MPLS:
LDP
MPLS-TE
FRR
MPBGP
MPLS label mapping
MPLS-L3-VPN
VRF aware features
Security:
Ip sec
SSH
SSL-VPN
Layer 2 & Layer 3 Protections
Firewall
IDS/IPS
Application Layer Protection
DOS attack protection
VoIP:
SIP
H323
Multicast
GARP-GMRP
IGMP v1/v2/v3
IGMP snooping and Proxy
DVMRP
PIM-DM
PIM-SM
Wireless:
IEEE 802.11 b/g
Wi MAX
IEEE 802.11n
For more information you may visit zframez.com or can send a mail to jeffhardybz at yahoo.com
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