Integrity Methodology for Interoperable Environments

Modern telecommunications systems are becoming increasingly complex, both in their internal construction and the degree of interconnectivity and interdependence between systems. This situation is exacerbated by regulatory demands for operator interworking and requirements for high quality delivery to the users. In this context, the crucial issue is that of the ability of systems to retain their operational state of high integrity. The number of integrity issues in such systems is vast, and these issues must be understood and managed throughout: development, testing, interconnection and maintenance. This paper presents a framework for analysing the integrity features of telecommunications systems, and elaborates on integrity-preserving policies that can be applied during system development and deployment. Moreover, a brief description of a case study based on ACTS project TRUMPET (DGXIIIB, AC112) is given.