A Multilayer Approach to Commercial Computer Networks Testing

Deployment of commercial computer networks sets high requirements for procedures, tools, and approaches for comprehensive testing of these networks. However, in spite of the great efforts of many researchers, the process of test design/generation still tends to be unstructured and bound to the personal experience and/or intuition of individual engineers. To address the problem, this paper introduces an approach of automated generation of abstract test cases based on the concept of multilayer networks. Test cases of that kind cover network infrastructures, including individual components and component to-component interactions on all coexisting architectural layers, and provide information for subsequent analysis to ensure that the used formal model is consistent with respect to test requirements.