Integration test environment for 5G mobile software modules

Abstract

This thesis is about implementing a new integration testing tool to supplement other methods of software testing and to allow performing integration tests on MediaTek’s 5G-and IMS-capable cellular modem software stack at an earlier phase of development. The tool reuses an existing unit test framework, builds multiple components of the modem stack under a shared environment and provides test cases ways to control and communicate with the system under test (SUT) over several interfaces, the most important ones being an AT command interface and an IP protocol stack interface.

A multi-part test case was written for the tool with the emphasis on demonstrating this tool in operation and testing the SUT’s functionality as a session initiation protocol (SIP) user agent against a simulated IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) core network. The test simulates a very basic use case, including a power-on, a cellular network attach procedure, an IMS network registration procedure and a mobile-originated IMS-based voice call.

In its current configuration, the test environment provides plenty of options for different testing approaches, and specifications alone provide numerous use cases for testers to implement. The environment was also found to build and run the test sufficiently fast for the continuous integration (CI) development process, and thus should be automated to constantly run regression tests on a CI server.