Automatic set-top box menu navigation scheme for STB menu functional verification

Abstract

An increased complexity of current Set-Top Box (STB) solutions is accompanied by more difficult verification of wide range of supporting functionalities. Due to large number of the STB functionalities the menu of the STB, which is considered as the main tool for the STB control, is of more complex structure. The complexity of the STB menu structure makes both manual and automatic control of the STB more difficult, which is crucial for efficient STB functional verification. This paper proposes a new solution for automated error free navigation through the STB menu for effective functional verification of the STB. The proposed testing solution is based on the existing Black-box testing (BBT) system for testing STB, by specially designed functional drivers. The BBT is customizable, easy to use, cost effective automated solution for system testing of STB. The testing approach for automatic error free navigation through STB menu is based on the constructed software-wise menu structure that enables automatic setting of the STB in a desired STB state, given the extracted string content of the current STB state and the target menu item. Specifically, in proposed scheme the STB menu is automatically navigated from the start to the target state iteratively until the current and the target state are found to be equal. The proposed testing solution provides greater testing efficiency and reliability for the STB functional verification as a result of automatic navigation through the STB menus, which reduces the amount of manual test-case generation 1. © 2012 IEEE.