The situation

Bring together a range of different tools running on a range of different platforms in a single solution: that was the challenge brought to Da Vinci Communications by the Protocol and Testing Competence Centre of ETSI.

The result was so successful that it is now being used by a range of telecommunication companies who run test systems made up of different tools and platforms.

ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, is a non-profit making organisation whose mission is to produce future-focused international telecommunications standards.

The institute offers a Specialist Task Force of expert teams from telecommunications companies who support ETSI's research. This speeds up the development of telecommunications standards. The task force is supported by leading telecommunications specialists, including Da Vinci Communications.

ETSI's Protocol and Testing Competence Centre offers support to the task force teams developing conformance test suites for various telecommunication standards. The PTCC uses a range of testing tools, including Da Vinci Communications' Leonardo Editor Pro and non-commercial TTCN analysis tools such as Nokia TC and the Ericsson TTCN translator.

Before Da Vinci's plugin solution, none of these tools could interact with each other.

Overview of the Universal plugin solution

The testing tools

The PTCC was using TTCN editors, compilers and syntax and semantic checkers from separate vendors.

Not only could these tools not interact with each other but all the tools were running on different platforms. Much energy and time was wasted changing from one tool to another during the testing process.

The solution

Leonardo Editor Pro's plugin capability is so powerful that it was possible for Da Vinci Communications to develop a single Universal Compiler plugin solution to bring all the tools and platforms together. It allows users to remotely start and control any third party command line tool from the Leonardo Editor Pro interface.

The benefits

• A full test cycle of editing, compilation, parameterisation and debugging can be completed from the Leonardo Editor Pro interface.
• With one keystroke, users can send the current MP file to a third party compiler or checker.
• The server application ensures the compiler can be controlled remotely from the Leonardo Editor Pro machine, rather than having to be installed on the same machine as the editor.