Fault Coverage of Tests Based on Finite State Models

Abstract

The finite state models have been used extensively in protocol conformance testing, as well as in software and hardware testing. It is well known that exhaustive testing is often impractical since it may require the execution of a huge number of test cases. In practice, testing is a tradeoff between increased confidence in the correctness of the implementation under test and constraints on the amount of time and effort that can be spent in testing. Therefore, the fault coverage, or adequacy of the test suite, becomes a very important issue. In this paper, we analyze various techniques used to evaluate fault coverage based on finite state models in the form of finite state machines (FSM) or labeled transition systems (LTS). We also point out certain issues which need further study.