Conformance testing or
type testing is testing to determine whether a system meets some specified standard.
To aid in this, many test procedures and test setups have been developed, either by the standard's maintainers or external organizations, specifically for testing conformance to standards.
Conformance testing is often performed by external organizations, sometimes the standards body itself, to give greater guarantees of compliance. Products tested in such a manner are then advertised as being certified by that external organization as complying with the standard.
Software Engineering
In
software testingSoftware Testing is an empirical investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test, with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate. Software Testing also provides an objective, independent view of the software to...
,
CompilerA compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a computer language into another computer language...
s, for instance, are extensively tested to determine whether they meet the recognized standard for that language.
It is a process of testing an implemented product to conform that it is based on its specified standards.
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
In
electronic engineeringElectronics engineering, also referred to as electronic engineering is an engineering discipline which uses the scientific knowledge of the behavior and effects of electrons to develop components, devices, systems, or equipment that uses electricity as part of its driving force...
and
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after...
, some countries and business environments (such as telecommunication companies) require that an electronic product meet certain requirements before they can be sold. Standards bodies such as
ANSIThe American National Standards Institute or ANSI is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...
, the
FCCThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President...
, and
IECIEC may refer to:In education:* International Education Centre* Information, Education, and Communication* International Electrotechnical Commission - An international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies.* Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Catalan Studies...
, to name a few, have certain criteria that a product must meet before compliance is recognized. In countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and some parts of Europe, products cannot be sold unless they are known to meet those requirements specified in the standards. Usually, manufacturers set their own requirements to ensure product quality, sometimes with levels much higher than what the governing bodies require. Compliance is realized after a product passes a series of tests without occurring some specified mode of failure. Failure levels are usually set depending on what environment the product will be sold in. For instance, test on a product for used in an industrial environment will not be as stringent as a product used in a residential area. A failure can include data corruption, loss of communication, and irregular behavior.
There are three main types of compliance test for electronic devices, emissions tests, immunity tests, and safety tests. Emissions tests ensure that a product will not emit harmful interference by electromagnetic radiation and/or electrical signals in communication and power lines. Immunity tests ensure that a product is immune to common electrical signals and
Electromagnetic interferenceElectromagnetic interference is a disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic conduction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of the circuit...
(EMI) that will be found in its operating environment, such as
electromagnetic radiationElectromagnetic radiation is a ubiquitous phenomenon that takes the form of self-propagating waves in a vacuum or in matter. It consists of electric and magnetic field components which oscillate in phase perpendicular to each other and perpendicular to the direction of energy propagation...
from a local radio station or interference from nearby products. Safety tests ensure that a product will not create a safety risk from situations such as a failed or shorted power supply, blocked cooling vent, and powerline
voltage spikeIn electrical engineering, spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage , current , or transferred energy in an electrical circuit....
s and dips.
Common Tests :
Radiated Immunity : An antenna is used to subject the device to electromagnetic waves, covering a large frequency range (usually from 30 MHz to 2.9 GHz).
Radiated Emissions : One or more antennas are used to measure the amplitude of the electromagnetic waves that a device emits. The amplitude must be under a set limit, with the limit depending on the devices classification.
Conducted Immunity : Low frequency signals (usually 10 kHz to 80 MHz) are injected onto the data and power lines of a device. This test is used to simulate the coupling of low frequency signals onto the power and data lines, such as from a local AM radio station.
Conducted Emissions : Similar to radiated emissions, except the signals are measured at the power lines with a
filterElectronic filters are electronic circuits which perform signal processing functions, specifically to remove unwanted frequency components from the signal, to enhance wanted ones, or both...
device.
Electrostatic dischargeElectrostatic discharge is the sudden and momentary electric current that flows between two objects at different electrical potentials caused by direct contact or induced by an electrostatic field...
(ESD) Immunity : Electrostatic discharges with various properties (
rise timeIn electronics, when describing a voltage or current step function, rise time refers to the time required for a signal to change from a specified low value to a specified high value. Typically, these values are 10% and 90% of the step height...
, peak voltage,
fall timeIn electronics, fall time is the time required for the amplitude of a pulse to decrease from a specified value to another specified value...
, and half time) are applied to the areas on the device that are likely to be discharged too, such as the faces, near user accessible buttons, etc. Discharges are also applied to a vertical and horizontal
ground planeIn electrical engineering, a ground plane is an electrically conductive surface.-Radio antenna theory :In telecommunication, a ground plane structure or relationship exists between the antenna and another object, where the only structure of the object is a structure which permits the antenna to...
to simulate an ESD event on a nearby surface. Voltages are usually from 2kV to 15kV, but commonly go as high as 25kV or more.
Burst Immunity : Bursts of high voltage pulses are applied to the powerlines to simulate events such as repeating voltage spikes from a motor.
Powerline Dip Immunity : The line voltage is slowly dropped down then brought back up.
Powerline Surge Immunity : A surge is applied to the line voltage.
Telecom and Datacom Protocols
In protocol testing,
TTCN-3TTCN-3 is a strongly typed test scripting language used in conformance testing of communicating systems and a specification of test infrastructure interfaces that glue abstract test scripts with concrete communication environments. TTCN-3 has been developed by ETSI and its predecessor is TTCN-2...
has been used successfully to deploy a number of test systems, including protocol conformance testers for
SIPThe three letter abbreviation SIP can refer to the following:-Business and economics:* Share Incentive Plan, a share plan for company employees* Systematic Investment Plan, an investment strategy.* Sales Incentive Plan-Computing:...
,
WiMAXWiMAX, meaning Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-multipoint links to portable and fully mobile internet access. The technology provides up to 10 Mbit/s...
, and DSRC.