A Conformance Testing Process for Space Applications Software Services
Ana Maria Ambrósio, Eliane Martins, Nandamudi Lankalapalli Vijaykumar, Solon Carvalho · Journal of Aerospace Computing Information and Communication · 2006
Comprehensive tests for space applications software are costly but extremely necessary. These software must be reliable and produced within schedule and budget. In a tentative of make the space mission software development for space agencies and industries more costeffective, the European Committee for Space Standardization (ECSS) has been compiling a set of standards that specify the common core of some space application systems. Once the set of services is standardized, the conformance problem is raised. In this paper we present a testing process for standardized services, which is based on the IS-9646 standard for ISO protocol conformance testing. The process includes an approach to derive test and fault cases by combining conformance testing concepts with the software-implemented fault injection (SWIFI) technique. One advantage of this process is the generation of a re-usable abstract test suite which improves the testing effectiveness. Reliability and convergence in the test cases are increased the more the tests are applied. Additionally, the evaluation of the software behavior under external faults may be performed under the repeatable set of fault cases. The approach is illustrated with abstract test and fault cases derived for the telecommand verification service stated in the ECSS-E-70-41A standard. These services,