Internet of Things (IoT) and its related technologies require proper testing, which often comes with several challenges. Since IoT applications must connect and communicate with different platforms, their testing phase is usually hectic.
These challenges are usually more common when it comes to their connectivity, compatibility, and security. To avoid problems down the line, it is necessary to understand these drawbacks and pay attention to them from the start. Read more to find out what they are.
Why Is IoT Testing Important?
IoT testing includes functional and nonfunctional tests that determine when a solution or application is ready to be used. It also helps developers figure out if these solutions can be deployed into the market. Like other software tests, this makes IoT testing possible to discover and fix vulnerabilities. This way, the final product can work as expected. There are several types, including:
- Functional testing
- Performance testing
- Integration testing
- Compatibility testing
- Scalability testing
- Usability testing
- Privacy testing
IoT testing usually requires a solid strategy and the right tools to ensure efficiency and real results. You must create a testing framework to achieve good outcomes. The framework also helps to organize the entire process.
Challenges Involved in Testing IoT Applications
Conducting IoT application tests can be tricky, especially due to concerns about their scale, connectivity, and security. Since these applications must work with hardware and network components, these issues are often more pronounced. Here are some of the challenges:
The Large Operational Scale
After deployment, IoT applications work with thousands of interconnected devices. All of these connect to over-the-cloud or on-premise servers over fast networks. Unfortunately, the server framework and infrastructure consist of different applications and services from various sources. Testing this multi-vendor and diverse environment while simulating real-time events can be quite challenging.
Hardware-Software Interconnection
IoT testing requires diverse and properly connected components due to the intensive real-life environment. You’ll need thorough integration testing to ensure seamless communication between devices, sensors, and software. Differences in hardware, communication protocols, and firmware updates make debugging and IoT performance testing more complicated. While important, this issue makes consistent, real-world testing environments hard to replicate.
Platform Differences
There are various mechanisms and network protocols for device-to-server connections, such as HTTP, MQTT, COAP, and web sockets. Unfortunately, it is not entirely practical to test for all these possible combinations. To shortlist significant test scenarios, you’ll need a thorough understanding of the end-use situations, specific domain knowledge. For this, functional testing reviews every aspect of the application to make sure it works properly.
Privacy and Security
Applications that are exposed on public networks are always at risk of being hacked. So, it is important to guarantee that security remains tight at all times when managing IoT devices. As it becomes more popular and useful, hackers are looking for weaknesses in these applications. One common challenge when it comes to security is preventing access to stolen devices to reduce the risk of data breaches.
Sensor Interaction
One big challenge is to create an environment where you can test the real-time implementation of the application. To set up this kind of environment, you’ll need numerous analytics engines and proper experience in technical simulation. While the protocols and hardware should be checked beforehand, figuring out the device complexity is quite a challenge.
Lack of Standards
Diverse hardware and software, as well as the absence of standard protocols, can pose a challenge. Since every device operates differently, you might need middleware to integrate them. However, you’ll need compatibility tests for every component. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to assess the overall system’s performance due to the extra processes.
Endnote
You may face several challenges when testing IoT applications due to their large operational scale, platform differences, and interconnectedness. Other problems arise from the lack of standards, sensors, and security vulnerabilities.