Interoperability tests on OSI products in the framework of the OSIRIDE-Intertest initiative

Abstract

Abstract Products implementing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Standards and CCITT Recommendations (hence forth referred to as OSI Products) are now emerging on the market. To meet user requirements relying on products that interwork effectively, the standards community is addressing conformance testing techniques. However, due to technical and economic reasons, conformance testing alone does not yield a full guarantee of proper interworking. This paper reports on the interworking of the first five lower layers of OSI and on the X.400 (Inthe paper, the terms X.400 and Message Handling System (MHS) are used synonymously) interworking investigated in the framework of an Italian initiative named OSIRIDE-Interest (OSIRIDE stands for “OSI su Rete Italiana Dati Eterogenea” or “OSI on the Italian heterogeneous data networks”). The paper focuses, in particular, on the methodology and architecture which were designed and developed to verify the interworking (not conformance) of OSI Products (not prototypes) provided by six computer manufacturers. Interworking was examined in an environment made up of many computers (Pilot Centers) attached to the Italian X.25 public data network (ITAPAC) while hundreds of users were running on them and not in vitro, i.e., not on computers dedicated to this specific task. The results obtained from the first two phases of our investigation are highlighted.