(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a a communications system usable as a system for simulating a plurality of other communications systems and a communication processing system having the communications system, and more particularly to a communications system usable as a test driver for testing a communications system connected thereto performing simulation of a plurality of other communications systems and a communication processing system in which a plurality of communications systems are connected by a network, each of the communications systems receiving messages from other communications systems and transmitting messages to other communications systems, at least one of the communications systems being usable as a test driver for testing another communications system.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In a communication processing system in which a plurality of communications systems are connected to each other by a network, each of the communications systems is identified by a network address. In, for example, a connection-oriented network protocol (CONP) which has been widely used in an OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) communication in a line, network addresses of an originating system and a destination are transmitted as parameters of a calling request packet when the network connection is established. After the network connection is established, it is presumed that a communication of information in the network connection is a communication between systems identified by the two network addresses. In addition, in a connectionless network protocol (CLNP) which has been widely used in the OSI communication in a LAN (Local Area Network), every time network data is transmitted or received, network addresses of an originating system and a destination are added to the network data, and it is presumed that a communication of information regarding the network data is a communication between the systems identified by the two network addresses.
In a conventional communication processing system, each communications system has no function of converting network addresses of other communications systems. That is, when a destination network address transmitted from another communications system is equal to a network address identifying a communications system, the communications system receives messages from another communications system and the messages are processed by a processing unit in accordance with a data processing program. Messages obtained as processed results by the processing unit are then supplied to the network along with a destination network address determined by the processing unit, and the messages are transmitted to another communications system identified by the destination network address.
When this communication processing system in which a plurality of communications systems are connected by the network are constructed, an operating test of a communications system is carried out using a test driver system which simulates a plurality of communications systems connected to the communications system to be tested. That is, in a case, as shown in FIG. 1A, where a communications system 100 to be tested is connected to communications systems-1, -2, . . . and -k which are respectively identified by network addresses X1, X2, . . . and Xk, a test driver system 200 is connected to the communications system 100 to be tested as shown in FIG. LB. The test driver system 200 receives, instead of the actual communications systems-1, -2, . . . and -k, messages transmitted from the communications system 100 to be tested. The test driver system 200 has application programs JOB1, JOB2, . . . and JOBk which are respectively used to simulate operations of the communications systems-1, -2, . . . , and -k. The application programs JOB1, JOB2, . . . and JOBk are activated to process the received messages, and the processing results obtained by the application programs JOB1, JOB2, . . . and JOBk are then returned from the test driver system 200 to the communications system 100 to be tested. That is, the communications system 100 receives the processing results as a test result.
It is preferable that the operating test of the communications system 100 should be carried out in a state as similar to an actual operating state as possible. Thus, conventionally, a test driver system for simulating a large number of communications systems actually connected to a communications system to be tested is formed as a dedicated system.
However, to prepare the test driver system which is dedicated to the communications system to be tested, large amounts of money and time are needed. In addition, since the conventional test driver system is dedicated to the communication system to be tested, the conventional test driver system is not used as an actual communications system of course.
To eliminate the above disadvantages, it is possible to construct the test driver system using an actual communications system which can be provided in the network. However, in this case, the following disadvantages occur.
In, for example, an OSI network, an NSAP (Network Service Access Point) identifying an open system is used as a network address. Each OSI system normally has a single NSAP address. Thus, even if the test driver system is constructed using the current OSI system, the test driver system can simulate only one OSI system. That is, the operating test of the OSI network in which a few thousands number of OSI systems are connected to each other can not be simulated in a state similar to the actual operations.
There is also an OSI system to which a plurality of NSAP addresses are assigned. This OSI system has a function for separately using the plurality of NSAP addresses with respect to other OSI systems. Thus, if the test driver system is formed using this OSI system, it is possible to simulate the number of OSI systems which number is equal to the number of NSAP addresses. However, the communications system to be tested must have the function regarding the plurality of NSAP addresses. As a result, the operation circumstances of the communications system to be tested must be changed to those different from the actual operations, so that the validity of the operating test deteriorates. Furthermore, even if the communications system has the function for separately using a plurality of NSAP addresses, due to the limitation of the number of OSI systems which can be simulated, the operation test cannot be carried out in the state similar to the actual operations. Actually, only a few tens NSAP addresses at most are assigned to the OSI system. Thus, the testing operation with respect to the OSI system to which a few thousand OSI systems are to be connected cannot be carried out in the state similar to the actual operations.
Furthermore, there is a disadvantage regarding application programs used to simulate services in the test driver system. That is, each of the application programs must be provided in the test driver system so as to correspond to one of the network addresses, as shown in FIG. 1B. Thus, in a case where the test driver system is constructed using a communications system having a plurality of network addresses, the number of operations which can be carried out must be equal to the number of communications systems simulated by the test driver system. However, the number of operations may be limited, and the cost required to carry out the operations is increased.