Patent ID: 8411579

Claim:
A system comprising: a testing function classifier configured to assign, to respective testing function groups of a plurality of testing function groups, testing functions for testing operation of entities of a communication system; and a testing function manager operatively coupled to the testing function classifier and configured to: associate an entity of a communication system with multiple testing function groups of the plurality of testing function groups by associating the entity with a group of testing functions for testing operation of the entity and further associating the entity with a group of testing functions for testing operation of another entity of the communication system based on an operational dependency between the entity and the other entity; cause a testing function in the group of testing functions for testing operation of the entity to be performed in the communication system; and cause a testing function in the group of testing functions for testing operation of the other entity to be performed in the communication system based on determining that the testing function for testing operation of the entity indicates an error in operation of the entity, at least the testing function manager being implemented using hardware, wherein the entities comprise one or more of: communication services supported in the communication system, and layers of a communication protocol stack used in the communication system.