Towards Pattern-based Testing Framework for IoT Ecosystems

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is expected to bring forward new promising solutions in various domains and consequently, impact many aspects of everyday life. However, the development and testing of software applications and services for IoT systems includes several challenges and

Project Title

Towards Pattern-based Testing Framework for IoT Ecosystems

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

The advent of Internet of Things (IoT) technology is expected to bring forward new promising solutions in various domains and consequently, impact many aspects of everyday life. However, the development and testing of software applications and services for IoT systems includes several challenges and current solutions have not yet properly addressed. Implementing test cases that cover multiple aspects, interfaces, and protocols is a demanding task due to the heterogeneous and distributed nature of IoT systems. Although there are already several tools that can be used in the testing of IoT systems, a number of issues can be pointed out: a technological review of existing solutions reveals the lack of a comprehensive test solution for automated integration testing. Focusing on a specific platform, language, or standard, limiting the possibility of improvement or extension, and not providing out-of-the-box functionality are among the most common shortcomings detected. A pattern-based approach to testing IoT systems that aims to address these faults is proposed. As part of this approach, a feature model will be devised that will enable the representation of the plurality of components and features of an IoT ecosystem. This is a first step in identifying a set of recurring behaviors of IoT applications and a set of corresponding test strategies, which are defined as test patterns specific to the IoT domain. Next, a pattern-based test automation framework for integration testing of IoT ecosystems will be developed that implements in a generic way to test patterns which can be easily instantiated for concrete IoT scenarios. Finally, some courses of investigation are laid out as future work, which can include the definition of additional IoT Test Patterns.

Project Objectives

Current technological trends will likely drive to the development of IoT technology. Healthcare is only one of the  areas that will benefit from the gigantic range of solutions IoT can provide. Thus, taking into consideration the range and scale of its applications, IoT will become an integral part of everyday life.

However, there are challenges associated with the development and testing of IoT applications and services. These challenges are not yet properly addressed by the existing solutions. Although there are already several tools that can be used in the testing of IoT systems, however there are a number of faults that can be pointed out. With the knowledge that failures in IoT applications can have dreadful consequences, the importance of ensuring their correctness becomes apparent. Nonetheless, implementing test suites and test cases covering multiple aspects, interfaces, and protocols is a demanding and tedious task, and it is from this fact that stems the need for a comprehensive test framework for IoT automated integration testing which will allow to ensure a solution’s conformity to the elicited requirements.

To address this issue, this work aims to:

• Identify the short-comes of existing test solutions.

• Conceive a pattern-based approach that can be applied to various scenarios to test recurring behaviors in the scope of IoT, enhancing reuse.

• Develop a test framework for integration testing of IoT ecosystems that requires minimal technical knowledge and provides out-of-the-box functionality.

Project Implementation Method

The proposed method is a pattern-based IoT testing framework that aims to support the process of unit testing and integration testing of IoT ecosystems. This enables test recurring behaviours in the scope of IoT in an automated manner without the need for dealing with test logic as well as it will implement a set of IoT test patterns out-of-the-box.

Furthermore, it will reduce the effort that is required to be put into the configuration of communication protocols for the various components that make up the SUT, by supporting the most widely used technologies. The framework makes it  possible to:

• Test Periodic Readings: Test IoT systems in which devices periodically perform measurements on one or more parameters, ensuring that those readings are performed at the expected rate and correctly transmitted and persisted within the IoT system.
• Test Triggered Readings: Test IoT ecosystems in which devices perform measurements triggered by a user on one or more parameters, ensuring that those readings are correctly transmitted and persisted within the IoT system.
• Test Alerts: Test scenarios which involve generating alerts whenever a certain condition is met, ensuring that the alert is triggered when that condition is met and that all subscribers are notified.
• Test Actions: Test IoT applications involving the triggering and execution of some action whenever a certain condition dependent on the data collected is met, ensuring that a pre-set action is triggered and executed.

Benefits of the Project

Healthcare, Computer Vision, Smart Farming and Smart Homes are  the domains which can take benefit of IoT. For instance, we can monitor, in the proposed system, the temperature, humidity level of a patient room, and at right time actuators can be activated to provide convenience to the patient in form of turning on/off Air Conditioner, lights etc. With the help of Body sensors, health parameters can be accessed by doctors or other caregivers, even when they are not in the vicinity.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The main contributions of this work includes:

• A review of the futuristic IoT and the challenges involved in developing and testing IoT solutions, and the existing tools for IoT testing;

• A feature model to categorize and group the components of an IoT ecosystem according to their characteristics and a set of test patterns that allow the test of recurring behaviours of IoT systems, which define a set of steps that should be taken into consideration when testing some specific behaviours of IoT systems;

• A pattern-based test automation framework, which aims to reduce IoT testing efforts. The framework supports the reuse and implementation of test patterns to automatically exercise recurring behaviours of IoT systems.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

IT

Technologies

Internet of Things (IoT)

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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