Automated microcode test packet generation engine

A system for automated testing of a routing chip comprising:

• a set of traffic routing instructions indicative of traffic processing operations applied to a router packet by a routing engine;
• a test bed operable to apply a set of test instructions corresponding to a subset of the traffic routing instructions performed by routing engine;
• and
• a test case generator operable to generate test cases corresponding to a router test packet and a test verification packet, wherein the router test packet is indicative of applying a preliminary subset of processing operations to the router packet, the preliminary subset of processing operations corresponding to the traffic routing instructions applied prior to the traffic routing instructions which correspond to the set of test instructions, and wherein the test verification packet is indicative of applying the set of test instructions to the router test packet.

A computer program product having computer program code for automating packet-based testing of a routing chip in a routing engine comprising:

• computer program code for determining a set of traffic routing instructions indicative of traffic processing operations to be performed on a router packet by the routing engine;
• computer program code for selecting a set of test instructions corresponding to at least one of the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• computer program code for determining a preliminary subset of processing operations corresponding to the traffic routing instructions to be performed by the routing engine prior to the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• computer program code for generating a router test packet indicative of a state of the router packet after applying the preliminary subset of processing operations;
• computer program code for generating a test verification packet indicative of the router test packet after applying the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• and
• computer program code for applying the set of test instructions to the router test packet.

A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave for automating packet-based testing of a routing chip in a routing engine comprising:

• program code for determining a set of traffic routing instructions indicative of traffic processing operations to be performed on a router packet by the routing engine;
• program code for selecting a set of test instructions corresponding to at least one of the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• program code for determining a preliminary subset of processing operations corresponding to the traffic routing instructions to be performed by the routing engine prior to the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• program code for generating a router test packet indicative of a state of the router packet after applying the preliminary subset of processing operations;
• program code for generating a test verification packet indicative of the router test packet after applying the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• and
• program code for applying the set of test instructions to the router test packet.

A system for automated testing of a routing chip in a routing engine comprising:

• means for determining a set of traffic routing instructions indicative of traffic processing operations to be performed on a router packet by the routing engine;
• means for selecting a set of test instructions corresponding to at least one of the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• means for determining a preliminary subset of processing operations corresponding to the traffic routing instructions to be performed by the routing engine prior to the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• means for generating a router test packet indicative of a state of the router packet after applying the preliminary subset of processing operations;
• means for generating a test verification packet indicative of the router test packet after applying the traffic processing operations to be tested;
• and
• means for applying the set of test instructions to the router test packet.