Communication test framework

A too for testing a plurality of different devices having different device types, the plurality of different device types having different communication protocols associated therewith, the tool comprising:

• a plurality of communication components, each communication component having a different physical transport for communicating with one or more of the plurality of different device types, each communication component being configured to communicate using at least one of the plurality of different communication protocols;
• and
• a computing device comprising a processor configured to execute:
• a command interface configured to receive a selection of a given command definition the and, in response to receiving the selection of the given command definition file, retrieve the given command definition the from a command definition datastore and pass the given command definition the to a protocol manager, where the given command definition file defines a set of commands for a device being tested and a communication protocol for the device being tested;
• the protocol manager configured to receive given command definition the from the command interface and, in response to receiving the given command definition file, retrieve a protocol plug-in from a plurality of available protocol plug-ins, each protocol plug-in of the plurality of available protocol plug-ins supporting one of the different communication protocols;
• a stack broker configured to receive the retrieved protocol plug-in from the protocol manager and, in response to receiving the retrieved protocol plug-in, instantiates the retrieved protocol plug-in, wherein each protocol plug-in from the plurality of available protocol plug-ins implements a common stack interface, the stack broker being configured to:
• a) when commanded over the common stack interface, open a communication session with a device being tested over one of the plurality of communication components, and b) when commanded over the common stack interface, generate one or more data packets intended for the device being tested according to the communication protocol supported by the protocol plug-in;
• the protocol manager being further configured to receive a command for the test device, along with at least one parameter value, as defined in the given command definition file and passes the command to the stack broker
• wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in:
• i) receives the command and the at least one parameter value,
• ii) converts the command to a command defined within the instantiated protocol plug-in,
• iii) generates one or more packets corresponding to the command defined within the instantiated protocol plug-in for the device being tested according to the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in, and
• iv) communicates the one or more packets to the device being tested using the open communication session;
• and
• wherein the protocol manager is further configured to store the retrieved command and response data corresponding to response packets received from the device being tested in a log the datastore.