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CSIT Design
===========

FD.io CSIT system design needs to meet continuously expanding requirements of
FD.io projects including VPP, related sub-systems (e.g. plugin applications,
DPDK drivers) and FD.io applications (e.g. DPDK applications), as well as
growing number of compute platforms running those applications. With CSIT
project scope and charter including both FD.io continuous testing AND
performance trending/comparisons, those evolving requirements further amplify
the need for CSIT framework modularity, flexibility and usability.

Design Hierarchy
----------------

CSIT follows a hierarchical system design with SUTs and DUTs at the bottom
level, and presentation level at the top level, with a number of functional
layers in-between. The current CSIT design including CSIT framework is depicted
in the diagram below.

.. figure:: csit_design.png
   :alt: FD.io CSIT system design
   :align: center

   *Figure 1. FD.io CSIT system design*

A brief bottom-up description is provided here:

#. SUTs, DUTs, TGs:

   - SUTs - Systems Under Test
   - DUTs - Devices Under Test
   - TGs - Traffic Generators

#. Level-1 libraries - Robot and Python:

   - Lowest level CSIT libraries abstracting underlying test environment, SUT,
     DUT and TG specifics
   - Used commonly across multiple L2 KWs
   - Performance and functional tests:

     - L1 KWs (KeyWords) are implemented as RF libraries and Python
       libraries

   - Performance TG L1 KWs:

     - All L1 KWs are implemented as Python libraries

       - Support for TRex only today
       - Need to add IXIA

   - Performance data plane traffic profiles:

     - TG-specific stream profiles provide full control of:

       - Packet definition – layers, MACs, IPs, ports, combinations thereof
         e.g. IPs and UDP ports
       - Stream definitions - different streams can run together, delayed,
         one after each other
       - Stream profiles are independent of CSIT framework and can be used
         in any T-rex setup, can be sent anywhere to repeat tests with
         exactly the same setup
       - Easily extensible – one can create a new stream profile that meets
         tests requirements
       - Same stream profile can be used for different tests with the same
         traffic needs

   - Sunctional data plane traffic scripts:

     - Scapy specific traffic scripts

#. Level-2 libraries - Robot resource files:

   - Higher level CSIT libraries abstracting required functions for executing
     tests
   - L2 KWs are classified into the following functional categories:

     - Configuration, test, verification, state report
     - Suite setup, suite teardown
     - Test setup, test teardown

#. Tests - Robot:

   - Test suites with test cases;
   - Functional tests using VIRL environment:

     - VPP
     - HoneyComb

   - Performance tests using physical testbed environment:

     - VPP
     - Testpmd

   - Tools:

     - Documentation generator
     - Report generator
     - Testbed environment setup ansible playbooks
     - Operational debugging scripts

Test Lifecycle Abstraction
--------------------------

A well coded test must follow a disciplined abstraction of the test lifecycles
that includes setup, configuration, test and verification. In addition to
improve test execution efficiency, the commmon aspects of test setup and
configuration shared across multiple test cases should be done only once.
Translating these high-level guidelines into the Robot Framework one arrives to
definition of a well coded RF tests for FD.io CSIT.
Anatomy of Good Tests for CSIT:

#. Suite Setup - Suite startup Configuration common to all Test Cases in suite:
   uses Configuration KWs, Verification KWs, StateReport KWs
#. Test Setup - Test startup Configuration common to multiple Test Cases: uses
   Configuration KWs, StateReport KWs
#. Test Case - uses L2 KWs with RF Gherkin style:

   - prefixed with {Given} - Verification of Test setup, reading state: uses
     Configuration KWs, Verification KWs, StateReport KWs
   - prefixed with {When} - Test execution: Configuration KWs, Test KWs
   - prefixed with {Then} - Verification of Test execution, reading state: uses
     Verification KWs, StateReport KWs

#. Test Teardown - post Test teardown with Configuration cleanup and
   Verification common to multiple Test Cases - uses: Configuration KWs,
   Verification KWs, StateReport KWs
#. Suite Teardown - Suite post-test Configuration cleanup: uses Configuration
   KWs, Verification KWs, StateReport KWs

RF Keywords Functional Classification
-------------------------------------

CSIT RF KWs are classified into the functional categories matching the test
lifecycle events described earlier. All CSIT RF L2 and L1 KWs have been grouped
into the following functional categories:

#. Configuration
#. Test
#. Verification
#. StateReport
#. SuiteSetup
#. TestSetup
#. SuiteTeardown
#. TestTeardown

RF Keywords Naming Guidelines
-----------------------------

Readability counts: "..code is read much more often than it is written." Hence
following a good and consistent grammar practice is important when writing RF
KeyWords and Tests.
All CSIT test cases are coded using Gherkin style and include only L2 KWs
references. L2 KWs are coded using simple style and include L2 KWs, L1 KWs, and
L1 python references. To improve readability, the proposal is to use the same
grammar for both RF KW styles, and to formalize the grammar of English sentences
used for naming the RF KWs.
RF KWs names are short sentences expressing functional description of the
command. They must follow English sentence grammar in one of the following
forms:

#. **Imperative** - verb-object(s): *"Do something"*, verb in base form.
#. **Declarative** - subject–verb–object(s): *"Subject does something"*, verb in
   a third-person singular present tense form.
#. **Affirmative** - modal_verb-verb-object(s): *"Subject should be something"*,
   *"Object should exist"*, verb in base form.
#. **Negative** - modal_verb-Not-verb-object(s): *"Subject should not be
   something"*, *"Object should not exist"*, verb in base form.

Passive form MUST NOT be used. However a usage of past participle as an
adjective is okay. See usage examples.
Following sections list applicability of the above grammar forms to different
RF KW categories. Usage examples are provided, both good and bad.

Coding guidelines
-----------------

Coding guidelines can be found on `Design optimizations wiki page
<https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/Design_Optimizations>`_.