A new edition of the seven part TTCN-3 standard, ETSI ES 201 873, edition 3 has been published with version number V3.1.1 and date June 2005.

"Publication of TTCN-3 edition 3 enhances TTCN-3 standardization and benefits TTCN-3 users" says Vesa-Matti Puro, CEO of OpenTTCN Oy. TTCN-3 edition 2 has been out since spring 2003 and the edition 3 was long awaited. The new edition adds new features such as multicast and broadcast support for communication operations, a new lifecycle model for test components, and standardizes logging interface. The standardization of logging interface benefits especially test system vendors and end-users who integrate tools to their own frameworks.

Publication of a new version of a programming language such as publication of an edition 3 of TTCN-3 also raises question about migration from an earlier release to the new release of TTCN-3. OpenTTCN Tester for TTCN-3 provides a smooth migration path from edition 2 to edition 3 by supporting simultaneously both editions in the same tool. In fact, modules written using TTCN-3 edition 2 can be mixed with modules written using TTCN-3 edition 3 in the same test suite allowing flexible selection of migration schedule. Modules of standardized test suites from ETSI still using edition 2 can be used with in-house developed modules using edition 3.

Parts of the new edition 3 of TTCN-3 standard, ETSI ES 201 873, are:

• Part 1: TTCN-3 Core Language,
• Part 2: TTCN-3 Tabular presentation Format (TFT),
• Part 3: TTCN-3 Graphical presentation Format (GFT),
• Part 4: TTCN-3 Operational Semantics,
• Part 5: TTCN-3 Runtime Interface (TRI),
• Part 6: TTCN-3 Control Interface (TCI), and
• Part 7: Using ASN.1 with TTCN-3 (New part).

New features of the new edition 3 of TTCN-3 standard are:

• improved log statement,
• long lived test component lifecycle model (alive type of components),
• support for multicast and broadcast communication operations including extension of TRI interface,
• standardized logging interface (TCI-TL), and
• standardized XML formatted log.

The reversed activation order of defaults breaks backward compatibility of edition 3 and edition 2. OpenTTCN Tester implementation corrects this incompatibility and provides a mechanism that allows free mix of edition 3 and edition 2 modules. This protects users of TTCN-3 from the edition 3 and edition 2 incompatibility and misinterpretation of TTCN-3 modules. This mechanism allows OpenTTCN users flexibly select which edition is used.

OpenTTCN Tester for TTCN-3 version 2.55.0.RC1, currently available, already supports subset of TTCN-3 edition 3 changes. Version 2.55.0 supporting more edition 3 features will be released on December. Version 3.0.0 supporting complete edition 3 will be released in 1Q2006.

TTCN-3 standard edition 3 documents can be downloaded from: http://www.ttcn-3.org/Specificationsed3.htm