scope:

This American National Standard contains the Abstract Test Suites for the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) token ring Station Management (SMT) layer protocol.

The SMT Protocol is extensive and very complex. In the development process, the protocol was broken into six separate areas. Those areas dealt with Physical Connection Management (PCM), Entity Coordination Management (ECM) Ring Management (RMT), Configuration Management (CMT), Frame Based Management (FBM) and Management Information Base (MIB).

This SMT ATS is divided along the same boundaries, with the exception that PCM and ECM are combined. Those two concepts are tested together. The formal description language used for Abstract Test Suite (ATS) development is Tree & Tabular Combined Notational (TTCN) and is defined in ISO 9646, Information Technology OSI Conformance Testing Methodology and Framework. TTCN is intended for higher layer protocol testing and requires the use of discreet Protocol Data Units (PDUs). The TTCN notation is used in the test cases for RMT, FBM and MIB. It cannot be used for PCM, ECM and CFM. These three protocols use line states as the method of conveying information.

A language, TTCN(P), was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in conjunction with the ANSI X3T9.5 FDDI Conformance Test Working Group. TTCN(P) is similar in structure to TTCN but changes the paradiagram from PDUs to line states. A description of the concept of TTCN(P) can be found in the beginning of Clause 6, PCM.