Test Facility for a Message-Switching System
W. E. Bracker, ED Sears · Bell System Technical Journal · 1976
This paper describes the development and use of a test facility for a computer-based store-and-forward message-switching system. The test facility provides a close approximation to actual operating environments, allowing the system to be tested in a realistic environment. The facility provides a vehicle for many essential system studies including performance monitoring and measurement, load testing, certification, and validation of various simulation and forecasting models. A wide range of tools is used in this facility–hardware and software monitors, terminal and network simulators, and data reduction and analysis packages. One version of the system is used to drive and thus test another version. A language for creating a set of test data is defined and is used to present various parameters to the switching system.