Testing and Automation of Ethernet Functionality Test Cases for Networking Switch

Abstract

The networking switch plays effective role in todays Ethernet Local Area Networks (LAN). This LAN can contain multiple Managed Switches those are playing vital role in uplink connectivity to the networking backbone. Broadcom's Robo Switch BCM53134 - Gigabit Ethernet switch is lowest power Switch which consumes less than 1.4 Watt. This chip supports different power saving modes and using this, power consumption can be decreased further by 60 percent. This switch is capable of providing Ethernet data connectivity for SOHO (Small Office Home Offfice)/SMB (Small Medium Business), for broadband home gateways, desktop PCs, set-top boxes, networked DVD player etc..The switch supports maximum speed of 2.5Gbps in Fiber optic. As a Quality and Assurance (QA) Engineer my role is to test the switch using script automation using python as per the Software Testing life cycle and for which test cases have developed. These can be executed on regular intervals to provide quality of an SDK image and an on-going review of the status of hardware quality of the switch. This includes Functional Integration testing, System testing, Acceptance testing and Sanity testing.Once the automated scripts ready it will be thoroughly validated by regression testing.The test cases are designed such a way that to validate the networking features supported by the switch hardware. The basic switch supporting features are mentioned in thesis.It includes the literature survey for the features tested and automated by me. The switch can operate in two modes; unmanaged mode and managed mode. Thesis contains brief explanation about both the modes. Also the test cases which are automated after testing and verification, are defined in thesis featurewise.