Patent ID: 7844412

Claim:
A system for performing a testing process, the system comprising: a plurality of test instruments located at a plurality of test sites, each test instrument having respective one or more driver programs and wherein at least one of the driver programs includes one or more functions; a test program that, when executed, performs a procedure on the plurality of test instruments, the procedure including a request for a test function, wherein the test program accesses the one or more test instruments through the one or more driver programs; a test system, wherein the test system comprises: a virtual multisite instrument entity configured to execute the test function in at least two test sites in response to the request from the test program, wherein the virtual multisite instrument entity is mapped to the respective one or more driver programs at the at least two test sites, wherein the respective one or more driver programs are configured to provide the requested test function, wherein the virtual multisite instrument entity is configured to execute the test function at the at least two test sites transparently to the test program, and wherein the virtual multisite instrument entity accesses the one or more test instruments through the respective one or more driver programs independent of the hardware of the one or more test instruments, and a memory structure, wherein the one or more functions of the at least one of the driver programs are contained within a fixed location with the memory structure; and a communication component configured to connect to at least one client computer over a communication network, wherein a user operating the client computer is capable of executing the test function at the at least two test sites.