Verifying external interfaces

These procedures are suggested when attempting to connect and verify an external interface to the system hub. Perform the first five steps before or after constructing any message record formats, translations, or TPS modules. You should perform the final step only after verifying all record formats, translations, TPS modules, and routes.

  1. Verify physical connectivity to the external interface.
  2. Verify that the connection is established. You should verify that communications to the device are valid in the required direction. For example, uni-directional versus bi-directional.
    The goal of verifying physical connectivity is to ensure that the system can communicate with the external device in a basic sense. In other words, you can see valid data at each end point of the connection, if appropriate.
    There are many tools available to aid in verifying physical connectivity. The tool to use depends on the specific protocol you are using. For example, you can use the UNIX tip utility to verify that an asynchronous connection works properly.
    You can also use hcitcptest to test a TCP/IP connection.
  3. Verify that the protocol to the external interface operates as specified by the vendor.
  4. Verify that message formats are correct and that positive and negative acknowledgments work as specified.
  5. Verify protocol characteristics, such as message resend and link reconnection strategies.
  6. Verify that the characteristics of the protocol driver match those of the external interface. Use this step to configure and verify protocol-specific TPS modules.
  7. Verify that the protocol can correctly communicate with the external interface. For this verification, configure a route with two protocol threads. Use the File protocol for one of the threads, and the protocol to test for the other thread. Messages can flow from a file to the external device or rhe external device to a file
    Note: All simulators must be removed from the network and the external interface that is connected to the system hub.