Automated Testing of Customer Edge Switching Architecture

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Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu | Master's thesis
Ask about the availability of the thesis by sending email to the Aalto University Learning Centre oppimiskeskus@aalto.fi

Date

2016-10-27

Department

Major/Subject

Networking Technology

Mcode

S3029

Degree programme

Tietoliikennetekniikan koulutusohjelma

Language

en

Pages

7+72

Series

Abstract

Customer Edge Switching (CES) is an experimental Internet architecture that provides reliable communications. It is an extension of Network Address Translation (NAT) with an added security feature to defend against various cyber attacks. Thus, a CES node is also a co-operative firewall. It provides inward reachability from a public host towards a private domain. Consequently, because of this added feature, CES also allows direct end-to-end communication between two private hosts located in different private domains. When two private hosts behind different CES try to establish a connection, domains negotiate inbound and outbound policies before admitting new traffic. The final ’allow’ or ’drop’ depends on the policy negotiation. As CES and its signaling protocols are being prototyped, there is a need for independent testing of the CES architecture. It is obvious that many features in CES can be attacked by an adversary bring different security threats for the CES architecture. Hence, the main goal of this research is to develop an automated test framework that CES developers and its early adopters can use to improve its operation. The test framework includes both functional and non-functional test suites. However, the concentration is put on security aspects of the CES architecture. Using the Robot Framework and STRIDE analysis, the implementation of automated security test framework is presented in this thesis to validate the CES architecture. By evaluating different test scenarios, it shows that the Robot Framework and our test suite have provided productive discussions about this new architecture, in addition to serving a clear, easy-to-read documentation. The research also confirms that test automation can be useful to improve new protocol architectures and validate their implementation.

Description

Supervisor

Kantola, Raimo

Thesis advisor

Goulart, Ana

Keywords

test automation, customer edge switching, keyword-driven testing, robot framework

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