Safe and efficient runtime testing framework applied in dynamic and distributed systems

This paper provides a standard-based and resource aware Runtime Testing Framework For Adaptable and Distributed Systems (RTF4ADS). Based on the runtime testing approach, RTF4ADS performs safely and efficiently tests on the final operational environment of such dynamic systems. Indeed, our proposal (1) looks for a minimal set of tests to re-execute written in a standardized notation, (2) assigns the involved test components in execution nodes while respecting resources and connectivity constraints and finally (3) performs distributed testing at runtime while it prevents test processes from interfering with business processes. Implementation details of the proposed research prototype are presented. To demonstrate the validity and the usefulness of RTF4ADS, a case study in the healthcare domain implemented using the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi) platform is illustrated. The experiments that we conducted show a reasonable overhead introduced by RTF4ADS. They also demonstrate the efficiency of this framework in testing dynamic and distributed systems while reducing side effects of this validation technique.