Future directions for national interoperability testing for network integrity

With the rapid evolution of the public switched telephone network, the introduction of the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN), wireless, and video services, and the growing involvement of new service providers, the needs for interoperability testing to help assure internetwork integrity grow. In this paper, we propose extending the internetwork testing program for common channel signaling (CCS), the Internetwork Interoperability Test Plan (IITP), to these new platforms and services. The IITP is an industry-wide group focusing interoperability testing for assuring network integrity of the interconnected CCS networks. This effort provides for national, off-line, realistic tests of the interconnected networks while inducing adverse conditions. In this paper, we detail the objectives and methodology for moving forward.