PROTOCOL INDEPENDENT INTERFACE SUPPORTING GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS INTERFACE DEBUGGING AND TESTING TOOL

• US 20130080832A1
• Filed: 09/23/2011
• Published: 03/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roche Diabetes Care Inc. (Roche Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Roche Diagnostics Operations Incorporated (Roche Holding AG)
• Inventors: Dean, Brian J., Reinke, Robert E., Relf, Christopher G., Raghuraman, Jyotsna
• Granted Patent: US 9,489,488 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A protocol independent debugging tool for debugging communication interfaces of devices is disclosed. The debugging tool is configured to receive communication protocol plug-ins corresponding to different communication protocols. The debugging tool instantiates a stack interface from the protocol plug-in, such that the stack interface implements a protocol-specific stack wrapper that communicates with a device being tested. The stack specific wrapper receives commands from a command interface for the device being tested, generates data packets in accordance with the communication protocol of the device being tested, and transmits the data packets to the device being tested.

Claims

1. A tool for debugging a plurality of different devices having different communication protocols associated thereto, the tool comprising:

a plurality of communication modules for communicating with one or more of the plurality of different devices, each communication module being configured to communicate using at least one of the different communication protocols;

a protocol plug-in datastore that stores a plurality of different protocol plug-ins, wherein a protocol plug-in implements at least one communication protocol for communicating with a device of the plurality of different devices;

a common stack interface defining an interface for communicating with each of the plurality of different protocol plug-ins; and

a stack broker that receives a protocol plug-in selection corresponding to a particular protocol plug-in of the plurality of different protocol plug-ins and instantiates the particular protocol plug-in using the common stack interface,

wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in receives a command for a device being tested defined in accordance with the common stack interface and generates data packets intended for the device being tested based on the command and according to a communication protocol associated with the instantiated protocol plug-in.

2. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein the common stack interface includes a stack factory interface that is used by the stack broker to instantiate the instantiated protocol plug-in, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes a stack factory object defined according to the stack factory interface and includes a constructor for instantiating the protocol plug-in.

3. The debugging tool of claim 2 wherein the stack factory interface is used by the stack broker to determine available communication protocol stacks defined by the instantiated protocol plug-in, and wherein the stack factory object of the instantiated protocol plug-in includes an available stacks object that determines the available communication protocol stacks defined by the instantiated protocol plug-in.

4. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein the common stack interface includes a stack interface that is used by the stack broker to open a communication session with the device being tested, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in defines an open session object that opens the communication session in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

5. The debugging tool of claim 4 wherein the common stack interface includes a communication session interface that is used by the stack broker to determine devices available for communication using the open communication session, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes an available devices object that discovers devices available for communication over the open communication session in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

6. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein the common stack interface includes a stack interface that is used by the stack broker to issue commands to the device being tested, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in defines a command object that generates commands for the device being tested in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

7. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein the common stack interface includes a stack layer interface that is used by the stack broker to determine individual stack layers of the instantiated protocol plug-in, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes a get stack layers object that determines available stack layers of the communication protocol of the instantiated protocol plug-in.

8. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in is further configured to receive a received data packet from the device being tested and to generate received data in the format defined by the common stack interface, wherein the received data packet is defined in accordance with the communication protocol of the instantiated protocol plug-in.

9. The debugging tool of claim 1 wherein a protocol plug-in of the plurality of different protocol plug-ins is provided by a developer of a device of the plurality of different devices, such that the debugging tool does not have a priori knowledge of a communication protocol corresponding to the protocol plug-in.

10. A method for configuring a tool for debugging a plurality of different devices having different communication protocols associated thereto, the tool including a plurality of communication modules, each communication module having a different physical transport for communicating with one or more of the plurality of different devices, each communication module being configured to communicate using at least one of the different communication protocols, the tool comprising:

storing a plurality of different protocol plug-ins, wherein a protocol plug-in implements at least one communication protocol for communicating with a device of the plurality of different devices and defines a communication stack interface implementation for effectuating communication between the debugging tool and the particular device;

defining a common stack interface for communicating with each of the plurality of different protocol plug-ins;

receiving a protocol plug-in selection corresponding to a particular protocol plug-in of the plurality of different protocol plug-ins; and

instantiating the particular protocol plug-in using the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in receives a command for a device being tested defined in accordance with the common stack interface and generates data packets intended for the device being tested based on the command and according to a communication protocol associated with the instantiated protocol plug-in.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising instructing the instantiated protocol plug-in to provide available communication protocol stacks defined by the instantiated protocol plug-in, the instruction being defined in accordance with the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes an available stacks object that determines the available communication protocol stacks defined by the instantiated protocol plug-in.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising instructing the instantiated protocol plug-in to open a communication session with the device being tested using an open session instruction defined in accordance with the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes an open session object that opens the communication session in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising instructing the protocol plug-in to determine devices available for communication using an available devices instruction defined in accordance with the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes an available devices object that discovers devices available for communication over the open communication session in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising instructing the protocol plug-in to issue commands to the device being tested using a command instruction defined in accordance with the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in defines a command object that generates the commands for the device being tested in accordance with the communication protocol corresponding to the instantiated protocol plug-in.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising instructing the protocol plug-in to determine individual stack layers of the instantiated protocol plug-in using a get stack layers instruction defined in accordance with the common stack interface, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in includes a get stack layers object that determines available stack layers of the communication protocol of the instantiated protocol plug-in.

16. The method of claim 10 receiving data from the device being tested via the instantiated protocol plug-in, wherein the instantiated protocol plug-in is receives a received data packet from the device being tested and generates the received data in a format defined by the common stack interface, and wherein the received data packet is defined in accordance with the communication protocol of the instantiated protocol plug-in.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising receiving a new protocol plug-in and storing the new protocol plug-in with the plurality of different protocol plug-ins.