Automatic CoDec generation to reduce test engineering cost

TTCN-3 is an abstract language for specification of Abstract Test Suites. Coding of TTCN-3 values into physically transmittable messages and decoding of bitstrings into their TTCN-3 representation has been removed from the language itself and relayed to external and specialized components, called CoDec. CoDec development, either implicitly or explicitly, is a must in any TTCN-3 testing activity. Field experience showed that there is a high cost associated with CoDec development and maintenance. To achieve adequate software engineering practices, a set of types, tools and definitions were developed. This paper unveils gray areas in TTCN-3 architecture and presents a methodological approach to minimize the complexity of CoDec development. Even though the initial field of application is IPv6 testing, the main tool introduced—the CoDec Generator—is a valuable tool in any testing application domain. It is designed to lower the CoDec maintenance costs in all test case lifecycle stages, from development to maintenance. This work has been partly supported by the IST Go4IT European project: .