Tru2way™ Compliance Testing

VividLogic believes interoperability is the key to the success of tru2way technology. Unlike the legacy STB which were leased by the cable operators to the consumer, tru2way devices can be sold in stores as retail tru2way STB or tru2way HDTV. Consumers can go to a local store, buy retail tru2way devices and connect them to their cable feed after subscribing for service with the cable operator and receiving a Cable Card.

VividLogic offers tru2way compliance services that will help verify whether a given tru2way implementation is compliant to the specification. VividLogic licenses the latest tru2way Compliance Test Profiles (CTP) for compliance testing. Tru2way devices should seamlessly integrate into the digital home and plug-and-play with the cable end regardless of who the local cable operator is.

Although the tru2way specification is designed for "interoperability", it is not guaranteed that all implementations of the tru2way specification will necessarily interoperate with different cable head ends. Cable Television Labs have identified a set of several thousand test cases that verify compliance of a tru2way implementation to the tru2way specifications. These tests are broadly divided two profiles known as Compliance Test Profiles (CTP) and Acceptance Test Profiles (ATP).

Compliance Test Profiles (CTP)

The CTP are several thousand automated tests that run over several hours/days and generate a compliance test report. They test the various OCAP modules to ensure they are API compliant. They attempt to validate the OCAP API to make sure the various third party Java applications can be downloaded and run on the STB. These 15,000 plus test cases were developed by visiting engineers to Cable Labs and are administered and managed by Cable Labs.

Acceptance Test Profiles (ATP)

The ATP on the other hand is a set of test procedures used to validate the Cable Card, DOCSIS, and IEEE 1394, etc.,\ functionality on the STB. These are not automated tests like the CTP but are instead a set of manual and time consuming device configurations and test procedures.

In order to provide CTP and ATP testing, VividLogic has a tru2way compliant Scientific Atlanta Head End with a DNCS 4.x, Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTS), Power Key, TS Broadcasters, in band and OOB modulators, etc. VividLogic has the OCAP test environment to compliance test and run CTP and ATP at VividLogic prior to submitting the devices for certification.

The tru2way consortium requires that all tru2way products be verified for tru2way Compliance before they are released. VividLogic offers these compliance test services that include administering tru2way compliance tests and verifying 3rd party tru2way implementations for compliance to the tru2way Specification.

Figure 1: VividLogic’s tru2way Compliant Head End