scope:

ISO/IEC 9646 is a multi-part International Standard which specifies a general methodology for testing the conformance of products to OSi specifications which the products are claimed to implement. The methodology applies to testing conformance to testing conformance to

a) the specification of an OSI protocol;

b) the specification of a transfer syntax used in combination with a specific OSI protocol; 

c) the specification of an OSI protocol profile, including the testing of conformance to any specified information objects used in combination with one or more of the protocols, as specified in the profile;

d) the specifications of a combination of OSI protocols, possibly used in combination with a specified transfer syntax and/or one or more specified information objects.

The OSI specification to which conformance is tested may be contained in an International Standard, an ITU-T Recommendation, or an International Standardized Profile.

ISO/IEC 9646 is in principle, applicable to conformance testing for Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).

ISO/IEC 9646 is applicable to conformance testing for those implementations of a protocol or set of protocols that require communication between two or more real open systems to achieve their purpose (e.g. Message Handling Service (MHS)), Directory Services, ISDN, Transaction Processing, Routeing, and Systems Management).

ISO/IEC 9646 is applicable to the different phases of the conformance testing process, these phases being characterized by three major activities. These activities are:

a) the specification of Abstract Test Suites (ATSs) for particular OSi protocols and Profile Test Specification (PTSs) for particular OSi profiles;

b) realization of a Means of Testing (MOT) able to run an executable form of an Abstract Test Suite;

c) the conformance assessment process carried out by a test laboratory for a specific client on the basis of an Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS), culminating in the production of a System Conformance Test Report (SCTR) and one or more Protocol Conformance Test Reports (PCTR), one for each ATS used; the results are given in terms of the relevant protocol specification(s) and test suite(s) used.

This part is applicable to all three activities, providing tutorial introductory material, together with definitions of common terms and concepts.

NOTE - ISO/IEC 9646-2 deals with the requirements and guidance for the specification of ATSs, independent of test notation. ISO/IEc 9646-3 defines the recommended test notation. ISO/IEC 9646-4 deals with requirements and guidance for realization of the means of testing. ISO/IEc 9646-5 deals with requirements and guidance for test laboratories and their clients for the conformance assessment process. ISO/IEC 9646-6 deals with the requirements and guidance for PTSs based upon ATSs for each of the protocols involved. ISO/IEC 9646-7 deals with the requirements and guidance for ICSs, System Conformance Statements (SCSs), their proformas and Requirements Lists (RLs).

ISO/IEC 9646 specifies the requirements for and gives guidance on the procedures to be followed in OSI conformance testing.

ISO/IEC 9646 includes only such information as is necessary to meet the following objectives:

a) to achieve an adequate level of confidence in the tests as a guide to conformance;

b) to achieve comparability between the results of the corresponding tests on a particular OSI implementation applied in different places at different times;

c) to facilitate communication between the parties responsible for the