Patent ID: 8433811

Claim:
A method for testing a heterogeneous network including a plurality of interconnected component systems, each component system supporting one or more communication protocols, the method comprising: normalizing communication protocols supported by the plurality of component systems into corresponding protocol grammars; after the normalizing, representing the plurality of component systems as a set of objects with methods corresponding to supported protocol commands; after the representing, generating a unit test for the heterogeneous system comprising a collection of method calls that correspond with a series of interactions among the plurality of component systems; after generating the unit test, converting the collection of method calls into test protocol messages based on the corresponding protocol grammars; after the converting, transmitting the test protocol messages to the plurality of component systems; monitoring returning messages received from the plurality of component systems in response to the test protocol messages; and determining whether the heterogeneous network functions properly based on the returning messages received from the plurality of component systems.