What is the difference between conformance testing and interoperability testing?
The terms conformance testing and interoperability testing are frequently used within the context of the consortium, however the specific meanings of these two terms may not be obvious to the newcomer. Conformance testing refers to test services (i.e., test suites), whose tests are based on specific clauses of the reference standard on which the technology is based. Each conformance test suite typically focuses on a particular layer or aspect of the given technology (physical layer, coding layer, media access layer, etc). In general, for every “shall” statement found in the given clause, the test suite will contain a test (or sequence of tests) to verify that the Device Under Test (DUT) conforms to the requirements of that particular statement. Interoperability testing is a slightly different class of testing, whereby a DUT is tested against a set of reference devices that make up the Interoperability Test Bed. This is a system-level test in which an attempt is made to verify that the
The terms conformance testing and interoperability testing are frequently used within the context of the consortium, however the specific meanings of these two terms may not be obvious to the newcomer. Conformance testing refers to test services (i.e., test suites), whose tests are based on specific clauses of the reference standard on which the technology is based. Each conformance test suite typically focuses on a particular layer or aspect of the given technology (physical layer, coding layer, media access layer, etc). In general, for every “shall” statement found in the given clause, the test suite will contain a test (or sequence of tests) to verify that the Device Under Test (DUT) conforms to the requirements of that particular statement. Interoperability testing is a slightly different class of testing, whereby a DUT is tested against a set of reference devices that make up the Interoperability Test Bed. This is a system-level test in which an attempt is made to verify that the
