Mohammed I. Younis

G2Way A Backtracking Strategy for Pairwise Test Data Generation

Our continuous dependencies on software (i.e. to assist as well as facilitate our daily chores) often raise dependability issue particularly when software is being employed harsh and life threatening or (safety) critical applications. Here, rigorous software testing becomes immensely important. Many combinations of possible input parameters, hardware/software environments, and system conditions need to be tested and verified against for conformance. Due to resource constraints as well as time and costing factors, considering all exhaustive test possibilities would be impossible (i.e. due to combinatorial explosion problem). Earlier work suggests that pairwise sampling strategy (i.e. based on two-way parameter interaction) can be effective. Building and complementing earlier work, this paper discusses an efficient pairwise test data generation strategy, called G2Way. In doing so, this paper demonstrates the correctness of G2Way as well as compares its effectiveness against existing strategies including AETG and its variations, IPO, SA, GA, ACA, and All Pairs. Empirical evidences demonstrate that G2Way, in some cases, outperformed other strategies in terms of the number of generated test data within reasonable execution time.

IRPS --- An Efficient Test Data Generation Strategy for Pairwise Testing

Software testing is an integral part of software engineering. Lack of testing often leads to disastrous consequences including loss of data, fortunes, and even lives. In order to ensure software reliability, many combinations of possible input parameters, hardware/software environments, and system configurations need to be tested and verified against for conformance. Due to costing factors as well as time to market constraints, considering all exhaustive test possibilities would be infeasible (i.e. due to combinatorial explosion problem). Earlier work suggests that pairwise sampling strategy (i.e. based on two-way parameter interaction) can be effective. Building and complementing earlier work, this paper discusses an efficient pairwise test data generation strategy, called IRPS. In doing so, IRPS is compared against existing strategies including AETG and its variations, IPO, SA, GA, ACA, and All Pairs. Empirical results demonstrate that IRPS strategy, in most cases, outperformed other strategies as far as the number of test data generated within reasonable time.

A strategy for Grid based t-way test data generation

Although desirable as an important activity for ensuring quality assurances and enhancing reliability, complete and exhaustive software testing is next to impossible due to resources as well as timing constraints. While earlier work has indicated that pairwise testing (i.e. based on 2-way interaction of variables) can be effective to detect most faults in a typical software system, a counter argument suggests such conclusion cannot be generalized to all software system faults. In some system, faults may also be caused by more than two parameters. As the number of parameter interaction coverage (i.e. the strength) increases, the number of t-way test set also increases exponentially. As such, for large system with many parameters, considering higher order t-way test set can lead toward combinatorial explosion problem (i.e. too many data set to consider). We consider this problem for t-way generation of test set using the Grid strategy. Building and complementing from earlier work in In-Parameter-Order-General (or IPOG) and its modification (or MIPOG), we present the Grid MIPOG strategy (G_MIPOG). Experimental results demonstrate that G_MIPOG scales well against the sequential strategies IPOG and MIPOG with the increase of the computers as computational nodes.

Security Problems in an RFID System

This paper focuses on the security and privacy threats being faced by the low-cost RFID communication system, the most challenging of which relate to eavesdropping, impersonation, and tag cloning problems. The security issues can be improved and solved by utilizing both prevention and detection strategies. Prevention technique is needed since it offers resistance capabilities toward eavesdroppers and impersonators. Detection technique is vital to minimize the negative effects of tag cloning threats. This paper proposes the use of both prevention and detection techniques to make RFID communication more secure. Lightweight cryptographic algorithm, which conforms to the EPC Class-1 Generation-2 standard, is used in the proposed mutual authentication protocol for RFID system to raise security levels. In addition, electronic fingerprinting system is deployed in the proposed solution as a detection method to distinguish counterfeit and legitimate tags.

Algebraic strategy to generate pairwise test set for prime number parameters and variables

Generating pairwise test set when the total number of variables is prime numbers has a remarkable property in that the test case generation process can be simplified by applying straightforward strategy that does not require any storage. This paper discusses the said algebraic strategy and compares the results with the well-known orthogonal array strategy. Additionally, this paper also demonstrates the applicability and simplicity of the strategy as compared to orthogonal array to obtain optimal test set for pairwise testing.

MIPOG - An Efficient t-Way Minimization Strategy for Combinatorial Testing

This paper presents a study comparing different techniques to achieve minimal test suites in combinatorial testing. Considering high interaction strength is not without difficulties. When the number of parameter coverage increases, the size of t-way test sets also increases exponentially, hence, resulting into combinatorial explosion problem. Addressing these aforementioned issues, a new strategy capable of supporting high interaction strength, called Modified IPOG (MIPOG) is proposed. Similar to its predecessor IPOG (In Parameter Order General), MIPOG adopts the horizontal and vertical extensions in order to construct the desired test set. However, unlike IPOG, MIPOG optimizes both the horizontal and vertical extensions resulting into a smaller size solution than that of IPOG, (i.e., with the test size ratio ≤ 1). In fact, MIPOG, in most cases, surpasses some IPOG variants (IPOD, IPOF1, and IPOF2) as well as other existing strategies (Jenny, TVG, TConfig, and ITCH), as far as the test size is concerned with an acceptable execution time. Additionally, MIPOG has also contributed to enhance many known CA and MCA that exist in the literature.

Assessing IRPS as an efficient pairwise test data generation strategy

This paper discusses a novel pairwise test data generation strategy, called Intersection Residual Pair Set Strategy (IRPS), based on an efficient data structure implementation. In doing so, this paper also demonstrates the correctness of IRPS as well as compares its effectiveness against the existing strategies including Automatic Efficient Test Generator (AETG) and its variations, In Parameter Order (IPO), Simulated Annealing (SA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), Ant Colony Algorithm (ACA), All Pairs, G2Way and Jenny. Empirical results demonstrate that IRPS, in most cases, outperforms other strategies as far as the number of generated test data and the execution time are concerned.

Development of Java based RFID application programmable interface for heterogeneous RFID system

Developing RFID based applications is a painstakingly difficult endeavor. The difficulties include non-standard software and hardware peripherals from vendors, interoperability problems between different operating systems as well as lack of expertise in terms of low-level programming for RFID (i.e. steep learning curve). In order to address these difficulties, a reusable RFIDTM API (RFID Tracking & Monitoring Application Programmable Interface) for heterogeneous RFID system has been designed and implemented. The API has been successfully employed in a number of application prototypes including tracking of inventories as well as human/object tracking and tagging. Here, the module has been tested on a number of different types and configuration of active and passive readers including that LF and UHF Readers.

A strategy for automatic quality signing and verification processes for hardware and software testing

We propose a novel strategy to optimize the test suite required for testing both hardware and software in a production line. Here, the strategy is based on two processes: Quality Signing Process and Quality Verification Process, respectively. Unlike earlier work, the proposed strategy is based on integration of black box and white box techniques in order to derive an optimum test suite during the Quality Signing Process. In this case, the generated optimal test suite significantly improves the Quality Verification Process. Considering both processes, the novelty of the proposed strategy is the fact that the optimization and reduction of test suite is performed by selecting only mutant killing test cases from cumulating t-way test cases. As such, the proposed strategy can potentially enhance the quality of product with minimal cost in terms of overall resource usage and time execution. As a case study, this paper describes the step-by-step application of the strategy for testing a 4-bit Magnitude Comparator Integrated Circuits in a production line. Comparatively, our result demonstrates that the proposed strategy outperforms the traditional block partitioning strategy with the mutant score of 100% to 90%, respectively, with the same number of test cases.

Interaction Testing: From Pairwise to Variable Strength Interaction

Although desirable as an important activity for quality assurances and enhancing reliability, complete and exhaustive software testing is prohibitively impossible due to resources as well as timing constraints. While earlier work has indicated that uniform pairwise testing (i.e. based on 2-way interaction of variables) can be effective to detect most faults in a typical software system, a counter argument suggests such conclusion cannot be generalized to all software system faults. In some system, faults may also be non-uniform and caused by more than two parameters. Considering these issues, this paper explores the issues pertaining to t-way testing from pairwise to variable strength interaction in order to highlight the state-of-the-art as well as the current state-of-practice.