Conformance testing in the telecommunications industry

The authors describe briefly the conformance testing effort carried out by international standards organisations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT). They also describe Bellcore's efforts in the conformance testing of X.25, the integrated services digital network, Signalling System No. 7, and Open Systems Interconnection upper layer protocol implementations. It is concluded that standards alone are not sufficient. Conformance testing based on standards is essential and will increase the likelihood of interoperability.<<ETX>>