IoT Testing : A few years ago, it was a boom of the mobile market. A huge number of various mobile devices have appeared and more different applications and programs have been created for a wide range of devices. Nowadays, the development and testing of mobile systems and programs are very popular. But a new notion has appeared – IoT (Internet of Things).
So, what actually is IoT and how does it influence modern life? Imagine that you have you coffee-maker or washing machine connected to the Internet. You are able to manage them using a special application and analyze different parameters on the basis of statistics.
In other words, IoT is when the old common things are connected to the Internet. Let’s review a smart watch. With its help, you can monitor your heartbeat, length and speed of your run, etc. Earlier, the smart watch was a kind of luxury, but nowadays, it is a must-have for sportsmen.
Such a situation concerns not only watches but every ordinary thing – you are able even to switch on/off the light using the application. Nevertheless, one point is common for all IoT products – they should be well-tested.
What Are the Key Aspects of IoT Testing?
- Usability
- Number of available devices
- Internet connection
- Security
- Communication protocols
The key factor of effective products is usability. Some devices are rather small and have only two or three buttons. That’s why usability testing should be conducted with regard to the capacities and aim.
Every IoT device has its own hardware, as well as software that ensures its proper operation. Besides that, the number of available firmware and operating systems and variants of their combinations can be really huge. It complicates the process of software testing a lot.
One more stumbling stone is Internet connectivity. The type of the network connection can be different. In some cases, it may be unreliable. So it is necessary to perform functional testing and performance testing applying various user scenarios.
Different communications protocols provide the proper interaction with controllers and with each other. The common protocols for IoT devices are:
- CoAP – Constrained Application Protocol,
- MQTT – Messaging and Presence Protocol,
- XMPP – Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol.
All the mentioned protocols have their pros and cons, and they should be taken into the account during web testing.
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