ProTester DNP Master

Master Station Simulator

for DNP 3.0 protocol.

Version 1.01
ProTester User’s Guide Revision Number: 1.01

Throughout this whole document INFO TECH Dr Wojciech E. Kozlowski sp. j. will be referred to as INFO TECH.

Disclaimer
THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE EFFORTS WERE MADE TO VERIFY THE
COMPLETENESS AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION, THIS DOCUMENTATION IS
PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY WHATSOEVER AND TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED, INFO TECH
DISCLAIMS ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
NONINFRINGEMENT AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SAME. INFO TECH SHALL NOT BE
RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION,

DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF, OR OTHERWISE RELATED TO,
THIS DOCUMENTATION OR ANY OTHER DOCUMENTATION. NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY, NOTHING
CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION OR ANY OTHER DOCUMENTATION IS INTENDED TO, NOR SHALL HAVE THE EFFECT
OF, CREATING ANY WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS FROM INFO TECH (OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR LICENSORS), OR
ALTERING THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE APPLICABLE LICENSE AGREEMENT GOVERNING THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE.

Copyright
Under the copyright laws, neither the documentation nor the software may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or
reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of
INFO TECH, except in the manner described in the documentation or the applicable licensing agreement governing the use
of the software.

Copyright 2005 INFO TECH - Dr Wojciech E. Kozlowski sp.j.. All rights reserved. Printed in Poland.
Technical support:
Arkońska 11, 80-387 Gdańsk, Poland
Telephone: +48 58 511 22 30
Telefax: +48 58 511 22 31
web: www.infotech.pl Version 1.01
e-mail: [email protected] Original material produced for ProTester.

List of Trademarks
Microsoft®, Windows are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Document Revision History:

Revision Who Date Description
1.00 MB November 2005 Initial version
1.01 MB December 2005 Ethernet connections and few object headers added.

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INFO TECH Software License Agreement

IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: BY INSTALLING, COPYING OR OTHERWISE USING THE ENCLOSED INFO TECH
SOFTWARE, WHICH INCLUDES COMPUTER SOFTWARE ("SOFTWARE") AND MAY INCLUDE ASSOCIATED MEDIA, PRINTED
MATERIALS, AND "ONLINE" OR ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTATION ("DOCUMENTATION"), YOU (ON BEHALF OF YOURSELF OR
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LICENSE AGREEMENT ("LICENSE") REGARDING YOUR USE OF THE SOFTWARE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THE
TERMS OF THIS LICENSE, DO NOT INSTALL, COPY OR OTHERWISE USE THE SOFTWARE AND IMMEDIATELY CONTACT
INFO TECH FOR RETURN OF THE SOFTWARE AND A REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE FOR THE SOFTWARE.

We are sorry about the formality of the language below, which our lawyers tell us we need to include to protect our legal
rights. If You have any questions, please contact INFO TECH.

1. License. INFO TECH grants to You a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use and reproduce the Software,
solely for internal purposes and only for the number of users for which You have purchased licenses for and not for
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EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.
WARNING REGARDING MEDICAL AND CLINICAL USE OF INFO TECH SOFTWARE: INFO TECH products are
not designed and intended to ensure a level of reliability suitable for use for testing systems for treatment and
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INFO TECH products are NOT intended to be a substitute for any form of established process, procedure, or
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INFO TECH BE LIABLE FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING
DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, LOSS OF BUSINESS
INFORMATION AND THE LIKE) ARISING OUT OF THE USE AND/OR INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE,

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EVEN IF INFO TECH OR ITS AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY
FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT
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7. Software upgrades. You obtain the right to receive free of charge upgrades of the software within one year from the
date of purchasing the license as evidenced by receipts or other documentation. After this time the delivery of a new
version will be a subject of upgrade charges defined by INFO TECH.

8. Customer support. INFO TECH will provide free of charge technical support for the period of 90 days from date of
purchasing the license for the software.

 Copyright 2005 INFO TECH Dr Wojciech E. Kozlowski sp. j. All rights reserved. Printed in Poland.

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INFO TECH would like to thank You, our customer, for your purchase of ProTester DNP 3.0 Master Station
Simulator. We greatly appreciate your faith in our efforts to bring you this simple to use, yet very powerful
software package. For over 9 years, INFO TECH has been providing innovative software solutions to our
customers in the field of industrial and power automation systems.

Please visit our web site at: www.infotech.pl to find out more about INFO TECH.

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Table of contents
1. Welcome to ProTester ..........................................................................................................................................1
2. Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................................2
2.1. Overview ......................................................................................................................................................2
2.2. Features.........................................................................................................................................................3
2.3. Quick Start....................................................................................................................................................3
3. Installation ............................................................................................................................................................5
3.1. Requirements................................................................................................................................................5
3.2. Delivered Components .................................................................................................................................5
3.3. Install ProTester............................................................................................................................................5
3.4. Uninstall ProTester.......................................................................................................................................6
4. User Interface .......................................................................................................................................................7
4.1. Main Window...............................................................................................................................................7
4.1.1. Main view.............................................................................................................................................8
4.1.2. Properties view .....................................................................................................................................8
4.1.3. Parser view .........................................................................................................................................14
4.2. Main menu..................................................................................................................................................15
4.2.1. Menu File............................................................................................................................................15
4.2.2. Menu Simulation ................................................................................................................................16
4.2.3. Menu Edit ...........................................................................................................................................16
4.2.4. Menu Templates .................................................................................................................................17
4.2.5. Menu Data ..........................................................................................................................................18
4.2.6. Menu Parser........................................................................................................................................19
4.2.7. Menu View .........................................................................................................................................21
4.2.8. Menu Help ..........................................................................................................................................21
4.3. Main Application Toolbar ..........................................................................................................................22
4.4. Parser Window Toolbar..............................................................................................................................23
4.5. Status Bar....................................................................................................................................................24
5. Simulation...........................................................................................................................................................25
5.1. General rules...............................................................................................................................................25
5.2. Automatic link handling procedures ..........................................................................................................25
5.2.1. Automatic link layer responses ..........................................................................................................26
5.2.2. Automatic link reset ...........................................................................................................................26
5.2.3. Automatic DFC polling ......................................................................................................................26
5.2.4. Automatic application layer responses...............................................................................................26
5.3. Sample test scenario ...................................................................................................................................26

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1. Welcome to ProTester
Welcome to the world of ProTester DNP Master, an advanced master station simulator for DNP 3.0
protocol. This program was originally developed to meet our own needs. Initially, the INFO TECH team
found this tool helpful while testing protocol implementations in slave stations.
This User’s Guide contains all necessary information you will need to install, configure and use ProTester
to meet your needs. We hope that you will find our solution helpful in your product development
environment, saving your time needed for development and test of communication protocol
implementations and communication setup tuning. We are also convinced the ProTester will provide
significant support in system integration and commissioning, and in the diagnostic of the running systems.
With all our experience INFO TECH will be very pleased to assist you in this process.
Your (faithful) INFO TECH team

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2. Introduction
ProTester DNP Master has been developed to simulate master station of the DNP 3.0 protocol and to
support analysis of communication with slave stations under test. Extensive functionality of our tool
package allows to use it in various situations, such as:
• testing new (and old) protocol implementations
• verification of protocol conformance
• system engineering and commissioning
• troubleshooting - in 'Step By Step' mode it operates just like a debugger!
• stress tests - it provides extensive logging and statistics
and many more.
It is an ideal solution for design engineer, tester, system integrator and commissioning engineer.

2.1. Overview
ProTester is installed on a PC and acts as a master station for a network of slave stations. The PC should
have at least one serial port available.
There are two main approaches of connecting ProTester with the slave station. In the first one RS-232
terminal cable is used to connect the slave station to the available serial port. Second approach requires
RS-232 / RS-485 converter and setting the flow control properties in order to communicate with the
stations in the RS-485 network.

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ProTester system overview.

2.2. Features
The following are the main features of ProTester:
Editing of test scenarios:
• easy and intuitive visual creation of test scenarios - no script language to learn
• fully configurable behavior of master station including requests, responses, time dependencies,
user actions etc.
• possibility of introducing several types of message errors and deviations from protocol procedures
Execution of test scenarios – simulation of the master station:
• Step By Step and Continuous mode
• run-time control of test execution flow
• support for RS232 lines, also with RS485 and optical converters
• baud rates up to 115200 bps
• support for modems
Analysis of test results:
• extensive logging and statistics
• repeatable tests

2.3. Quick Start

After installing ProTester the system is ready to use. To start the master station simulation the following
steps should be performed:
1. Start ProTester application.
2. Create a test scenario (or load it from a file).
• Add at least one line and set communication parameters in its properties .
• Add at least one slave station to the Stations folder and configure its protocol parameters and
testing conditions (behavior of master station) in its properties.
• Add required communication transactions to the Sequence folder.
3. The last thing to do is to start the master station simulation by selecting the Start option from
Simulation menu or by clicking Start icon on the toolbar . Sent and received frames will be visible in
the Parser View for analysis.

For more detailed description of the ProTester setup and operation refer to user interface description.

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3. Installation
This section provides details on how to install ProTester application. There are some mandatory steps that
need to be followed, so for your own safety and convenience, please read this section carefully before
proceeding with the installation.
ProTester applications will be further upgraded based on the feedback from our customers. Please check
our web site at www.infotech.pl for upgrade information. All registered customers are entitled to free
upgrade within one year from purchase/registration of the ProTester software. INFO TECH will deliver an
upgraded software version when available.

3.1. Requirements
ProTester has the following minimum system requirements:
• Intel Pentium class processor, 100 MHz or higher
• 64 Mb RAM
• 20 Mb free hard disk space
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (SP4 recommended) or Windows XP Professional
• At least one free serial port available
• At least one free USB port available

3.2. Delivered Components

The delivered ProTester package contains the following components:
• Software for Windows 2000/XP Pro including:
o ProTester Master Simulator
o HTML help file
• User documentation in PDF format
• Information leaflet about the ProTester package
• Security adapter (dongle) to be plugged into the USB port

3.3. Install ProTester

Please follow these steps to install ProTester on your computer:
• Power up the computer and properly start into the Windows™ system.

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• Make sure the user account has Administrator privileges.

• Insert the medium (CD) with ProTester installation package into the computer drive.
• Find the setup.exe program in the main catalog.
• Double-click on this program to begin the installation process. You can either accept the
default directory for program location or choose another preferred directory. When ProTester
has been properly installed, an information about the successful installation will be displayed.
In case of problems please contact INFO TECH.
• Before each launch of the ProTester application insert the received security adapter into the
USB port. The security adapter is mandatory to run ProTester application. Only the trial
version of ProTester can be used without the security adapter.
• Launch the ProTester application by double-clicking on its icon on the desktop or its name in
the start menu list.

3.4. Uninstall ProTester

Please follow these steps to uninstall your copy of ProTester application:
• Select system utility Add/Remove programs (available in the Windows Control Panel folder).
• Find the product with name: ProTester DNP Master, select it and press the “Remove…” button.
• Confirm removing the package by pressing the “OK” button.

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4. User Interface
This chapter will provide the user with details of the ProTester user interface. First, the main GUI
“look and feel” is presented. Then the functionality of each menu item is outlined. Following this
is some detailed information about communication system definition, simulation and using the
protocol parsers.

4.1. Main Window

ProTester user interface is composed of the following parts:
• Main Menu which includes all available features
• Main toolbar with most frequently used commands
• Three data panels: Main View, Parser View and Properties View, as indicated on the picture
below.
• Parser toolbar with commands for Parser View

• Status Bar

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4.1.1. Main view

Main view allows to define the tested system and set the conditions of master station simulation. Line
elements represent the physical connections and its properties include the communication settings of the
master station. The tested system can be composed of multiple lines.

Below each line the user defines a structure of the network by adding slave stations to Stations
folder . Communication settings of slave station and communication conditions (general behavior of the
master station) are defined in the properties of those stations.

Communication procedure can be defined as a set of sequences . Sequences are grouped into Sequences
folder and they may contain the following elements, building any complex test scenario: primary
frames (transactions initiated by master station) , secondary frames (transactions in which master
responds to slave station) , delays , user prompts , direct messages (text strings used e.g. for
control of modems or other data communication equipment) .
Main tree view allows to select multiple elements of the same type to modify their properties or to perform
some editing operations, supports drag & drop feature and displays hint for each element under the cursor.

4.1.2. Properties view

This section provides detailed description of properties of all main tree elements of Main View.

Line properties
Line element represents a physical connection and communication settings of the master station.

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Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether communication on this line will be started during master
simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether all active sequences will be processed only once (Single
setting) or according to their individual settings (Cyclic setting) during simulation.
Inter message timeout [ms] defines minimum delay between two consecutive operations performed by
the master station on the communication interface.
Master address property defines a source address for all sent frames and the destination address for all
received and accepted frames.
Broadcast address property defines destination address for all broadcast frames.
Connection property allows to select a connection type. Serial line and Ethernet connections are
available.
The following properties configure the serial line:

• Port property allows to select serial port used for the defined line.

• Speed property defines baud rate.

• Data bits property defines the number of data bits.

• Parity property defines parity setting.

• Stop bits property defines the number of stop bits.

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• RTS control property defines setting for RTS pin of RS-232-C.

• CTS output flow property defines setting for CTS pin of RS-232-C.

• DTR control property defines setting for DTR pin of RS-232-C.

• DSR output flow property defines setting for DSR pin of RS-232-C.
The following properties configure the Ethernet connection:

• Protocol property allows to select between TCP and UDP network protocols.

• Destination Port property allows to select a port on a destination host to connect to. The default
value for DNP protocol is 20000.

• Destination Address property points to the destination host.

• Keep-alive process sends Request Link Status frames when nothing has been sent for a defined
number of seconds. It is used to keep a TCP connection alive and can be turned on or off.

• Keep-alive time [s] defines an idle time after which Request Link Status frame will be sent to the
first active station defined in the line.

• Reconnect on loss property determines whether the TCP connection will be reestablished after it
is lost.

• Reconnect time [s] defines an idle time before reconnecting after previous reconnect try has
failed.

Station properties
Station element allows to configure communication of the master station with a given slave station.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether frames to this station will be sent and frames received from this
station will be accepted during master simulation.

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Station address property defines destination address for frames associated with this station.
Link layer timeout [ms] property defines timeout after which link layer frame from the master to this
station will be retransmitted (if necessary) if no response has been received.
Link layer retransmissions property defines maximum number of link layer retransmissions.
Application layer timeout [ms] property defines timeout after which application layer frame from the
master to this station will be retransmitted (if necessary) if no response has been received.
Application layer retransmissions property defines maximum number of application layer
retransmissions.
Link layer responses property defines behavior of master station upon reception of a primary link layer
frame from the active station. This setting can be overwritten with a secondary frame element in the
sequence.
Auto link reset property determines whether reset link frame will be sent automatically if needed.
Auto DFC polling property determines whether request status frame will be sent automatically upon
reception of DFC=1 in the frame sent by the slave station.
Application layer responses property defines behavior of master station upon reception of a primary
application layer frame from the active station. This setting can be overwritten with a secondary frame
element in the sequence.

Sequence properties
Sequence element is a container grouping other elements composing a communication procedure. There
can be multiple sequences defined, with individual properties.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether all active frames in this sequence will be sent during master
simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether all active frames in this sequence will be sent only once
(Single setting) or according to their settings (Cyclic setting) during master simulation.

Frame properties
Frame element represents a frame that will be sent to the associated slave station.

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Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether this frame will be sent during master simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether this frame will be sent only once (Single setting) or
cyclically until the termination of the master simulation (Cyclic setting).
Destination property associates frame with the defined slave station or a broadcast destination. None
setting is of a temporary character and should be changed in order to activate the frame.
Data link function is the first property defining content of the frame. List of available fields changes
dynamically and depends on the current selection.
Overwrite fields allow to overwrite every octet of the defined frame preserving correct CRC, unless the
CRC filed is overwritten.

Secondary frame properties

Secondary frame element represents a frame that will be sent to the associated slave station in response to
the primary frame received from this station.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
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Activated property determines whether this frame will be sent during master simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether this frame will be sent only once (Single setting) or
cyclically until the termination of the master simulation (Cyclic setting).
Destination property associates secondary frame with the defined slave station. None setting is of a
temporary character and should be changed in order to activate the frame.
Response type property defines a behavior of master station upon reception of a primary frame from the
associated station.
Overwrite fields allow to overwrite every octet of the defined secondary frame preserving correct CRC,
unless the CRC filed is overwritten.

Delay properties
Delay element introduces a delay between two active elements of a Sequence.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the main
tree view.
Activated property determines whether this delay will be applied during master simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether this delay will be applied only once (Single setting) or
cyclically until the termination of the master simulation (Cyclic setting).
Delay [ms] property defines length of the delay.

User prompt properties

User prompt element displays a configured text, pauses execution of the test scenario on the given line and
resumes it after a user action.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether this user prompt will be shown during master simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether this user prompt will be shown only once (Single setting)
or cyclically until the termination of the master simulation (Cyclic setting).
User prompt text property defines a text to be displayed in the message box.

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Direct message properties

Direct message element represents a string that will be sent directly to the communication interface. It can
be used for example to send a modem control command.

Name property is used to define a description of the element. This optional text will be visible in the tree.
Activated property determines whether this direct message will be sent during master simulation.
Transmission rule property determines whether this direct message will be sent only once (Single setting)
or cyclically until the termination of the master simulation (Cyclic setting).
Message text property defines a string to be sent directly to the communication interface. This string may
contain also special characters like <CR> or <LF>.

4.1.3. Parser view

Parsing frames
Parsing of frames begins immediately after starting the master simulation.

Layers information
This view displays parsed frames, with timestamps of the first frame character and the
protocol layers information.
The following abbreviations are used:
• PL - physical layer

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• LL - link layer
• TL - transport layer
• AL - application layer
• UL - user layer
The parser may display layer information selectively, according to the appropriate parser
settings in the Parser Properties Dialog.

Selecting frames
It is possible to select an area of the parser window with the left button of the pointing
device. The selection can be copied to system clipboard (using Ctrl+C).

4.2. Main menu

This section provides details of all menu items in the ProTester application. Each figure below presents
the options that are available under the corresponding menu item.

4.2.1. Menu File

Commands in this menu are related to communication system definition in Main View.

The New command deletes current communication system definition. If current communication system
definition was not saved, the user will be notified about it and will have a chance to save
current definition.
The Open... command loads a saved communication system definition from a file. The operation replaces
the current definition with the definition from a file. The file is selected in an Open File dialog.
The Save command saves the current communication system definition to a file. The file name and the
directory are specified in a Save File dialog. The default extension for a file is .QYL.
The Save as... command saves the current communication system definition to a file under user specified
name. The file name and the directory are specified in a Save File dialog. The default extension for a file
is .QYL.
The Exit command closes the application.

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4.2.2. Menu Simulation

Commands in this menu are related to master station simulation.

The Start command starts master station simulation for all active lines.
The Next Step command is available only in Step By Step mode. This command performs next
transaction from communication system definition (marked as bold). Note, that it is possible to start a new
link layer transaction while the last application layer transaction is still in progress.
The Stop command stops simulation for all lines.
In Step By Step mode the application moves to the next element in the communication system definition
after selecting Next Step command. Application can work in Step By Step mode with only one active
line.
Repeat option determines whether all active lines will be processed once (Repeat option not selected) or
according to their settings (Repeat option selected) during simulation. If Repeat option is not selected,
the simulation ends when there is noting more to send.

4.2.3. Menu Edit

Commands in this menu allow to manipulate the content of the communication system definition
presented in the Main View.

The Add Line command adds new Line.

The Add Station command adds new Station to Stations folder.

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The Add Sequence command adds new Sequence to Sequences folder.

The Add Frame command adds new Frame to a chosen Sequence.
The Add Secondary Frame command adds new Secondary frame to a chosen Sequence.
The Add Delay command adds new Delay to a chosen Sequence.
The Add User Prompt command adds new User prompt to a chosen Sequence.
The Add Direct Message command adds new Direct message to a chosen Sequence.
The Cut command removes the currently selected data from the document and puts it into the internal
clipboard. This command is unavailable if there is no data currently selected. Cutting data into the internal
clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.
The Copy command copies selected data into the internal clipboard. This command is unavailable if there
is no data currently selected. Copying data into the internal clipboard replaces the contents previously
stored there.
The Paste command inserts a copy of the internal clipboard contents at the insertion point. This command
is unavailable if the internal clipboard is empty.
The Delete command deletes currently selected items in Main View.

4.2.4. Menu Templates

Commands in this menu allow to add protocol specific frames to a chosen Sequence of the communication
system definition presented in the Main View.

Use frame templates to quickly add protocol specific Frame to a Sequence.

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4.2.5. Menu Data

Commands in this menu allow to display and clear statistical data gather for stations during simulation.

The Display station's statistics command shows statistics for the selected station or the station
associated with selected item or for the first station in the current line.
The Reset station's statistics command resets the statistics for the selected station.
The Reset all stations' statistics command resets the statistics for all stations defined for the selected line.

Statistics dialog
Station's statistics dialog displays statistics gathered for a slave station selected from the dropdown list.
The list includes all the stations from the current line. It is possible to clear statistics for the selected
station by pressing the Clear button.

Link layer statistics:

• Sent primary frames - number of all primary frames sent to the station.
• Sent secondary frames - number of all secondary frames sent to the station.
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• Received primary frames - number of all primary frames received from the station.
• Received secondary frames - number of all secondary frames received from the station.
• Retransmissions - number of all link layer retransmissions to the station.
• Timeouts - number of link layer timeouts occurred for the station.
• Minimum response time - minimum time between link layer request and link layer response for the
station.
• Average response time - average time between link layer request and link layer response for the
station.
• Maximum response time - maximum time between link layer request and link layer response for the
station.
• FCB errors - number of all received frames with repeated value of FCB bit from the station.
• Checksum errors - number of all received frames with invalid checksum.
• Frame format errors - number of all received frames with format not matching to line configuration.

Application layer statistics:

• Broadcast frames - number of all broadcast frames sent on the current line.
• Sent frames - number of all started application layer transactions and their retransmissions. Note, that
starting application layer transaction does not necessarily mean sending an application layer frame.
Application layer frame is not sent in case of failure of automatic link layer procedure.
• Received frames - number of all frames with application layer received from the station.
• Retransmissions - number of all application layer retransmissions to the station.
• Timeouts - number of application layer timeouts occurred for the station.
• Minimum response time - minimum time between the start of the application layer transaction and
the reception of an application layer frame which ends the transaction.
• Average response time - average time between the start of the application layer transaction and the
reception of an application layer frame which ends the transaction.
• Maximum response time - maximum time between the start of the application layer transaction and
the reception of an application layer frame which ends the transaction.

4.2.6. Menu Parser

This menu can be used to change protocol parser's settings and manipulate parsed data.

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The Save Output... command saves already processed data into a file.
The Clear Output command deletes already processed data.
The Find command searches for a specified text in the parser output.
The Colors command displays Parser colors dialog.
The Properties command displays Parser properties dialog.
Parser view displays the most recently captured data if Auto scroll option is selected. Otherwise, it is
possible to browse through the parsed text using the scroll-bar. If the text line does not fit into the text
area (is too long), the use of Word wrap option will break text lines automatically.

Properties dialog

It is possible to set a filter for the protocol layers. Only data from selected layers will be displayed in the
parser window and saved to the parser output file.

Colors dialog

The Colors dialog allows to select a color scheme for data presentation in parser view.

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It is possible to select the color scheme for the direction of the parsed frames and for error messages.

4.2.7. Menu View

Options in this menu allow to customize the view.

The Toolbar option shows and hides the Main application toolbar.
The Parser Toolbar option shows and hides the Parser toolbar.
The Status Bar option shows and hides the Status bar.
The Parser view option shows and hides the Parser view .
The Properties view option shows the Properties view .

4.2.8. Menu Help

This menu allows the user to access Help and information about ProTester application.

The ProTester application has an online context help that can be invoked by simply pressing the F1 key.
The help function can be invoked independently of the current context using the Contents command from
Help menu.
The Contents command displays the help opening screen.

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The Index command displays the index of help keywords.

The About... command displays information about ProTester application.

About dialog
The About... dialog displays product information about ProTester, including the software version number.

Clicking the INFO TECH logo will take you to the INFO TECH website at www.infotech.pl. Here you
can find latest information on the available ProTeste applications for various protocols and on other INFO
TECH products and offered services.

4.3. Main Application Toolbar

Shortcuts available in the application toolbar are shown below.

New file - menu command: File\New

Open file - menu command: File\Load
Save file - menu command: File\Save
Start communication - menu command: Simulation\Start
Next step in "Step by step" mode - menu command: Simulation\Next step
Stop communication - menu command: Simulation\Stop
Step By Step mode - menu command: Simulation\Step by step mode
Repeat mode - menu command: Simulation\Repeat mode
Add Line – menu command: Edit\Add Line
Add Station - menu command: Edit\Add Station

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Add Sequence - menu command: Edit\Add Sequence

Add Frame - menu command: Edit\Add Frame
Add Secondary Frame - menu command: Edit\Add Secondary Frame
Add Delay - menu command: Edit\Add Delay
Add User Prompt - menu command: Edit\Add User Prompt
Add Direct Message - menu command: Edit\Add Direct Message
Cut selected item - menu command: Edit\Cut
Copy selected item - menu command: Edit\Copy
Paste - menu command: Edit\Paste
Delete selected item - menu command: Edit\Delete
About - menu command: Help\About
Context help

4.4. Parser Window Toolbar

Parsing and saving the parsed buffer

Parsing begins automatically after starting the simulation. Each line has a separate log which
may be selected in the combo box .

If parsed data are irrelevant the parser output can be Cleared at any time.

Parser reconfiguration button allows to change layer selection.

Find option (Ctrl + F) allows to search for a specified text in the parser output.

It is possible to Save already logged data into a file.

Color settings
The text in the parser window is colored based on the direction of frames. By default the
frames from the master station are displayed on a blue background and the frames from the
slave station are displayed on a green background. Errors are highlighted using a red
background. Colors can be customized using the Color settings toolbar button, which
opens the Colors window.
Text options

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Protocol window displays the most recently captured data if Auto scroll option is
selected. Otherwise, it is possible to browse through the parsed text using the scroll-bar. If the
text line does not fit into the text area (is too long), the use of Word wrap option will
break text lines automatically.
Clipboard
Any part of the displayed text can be marked using the pointing device and the copied to the
clipboard by pressing CTRL + C. To mark whole parser output just press CTRL + A.

4.5. Status Bar

The status bar is displayed on the bottom of the ProTester window. To display or hide the status bar, use
the Status Bar command in the View menu.

The status bar contains the following information

1. Prompt (help information).
2. Keyboard state indicators that display which of the following keys are latched down:
• CAP - The Caps Lock key is latched down.
• NUM - The Num Lock key is latched down.
• SCRL - The Scroll Lock key is latched down.

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5. Simulation
This chapter describes the basics of a master station simulation. There are several rules which determine
when the simulation starts and ends, when and upon what conditions the Sequence elements are included
in the communication and when the automatic link handling procedures are used. The last section is an
example test scenario, which demonstrates the usage of all sequence elements.

5.1. General rules

Active property
This property is available for all tree elements except for Stations folder and Sequences folder. This
property determines whether an element is included in the simulation. If so, all its sub-elements are
included according to their Active property setting. Value of this property can be changed while the
simulation is running. If we deactivate a Station element, all Frame and Secondary frame elements
associated with this station will be also deactivated. This rule doesn’t work inversely when we activate the
station, which means that active property of frames associated with this station will not change. Master
station is not responding to the frames received from undefined or not active station.

Transmission rule property

This property is available for all tree elements except for Station element, Stations folder and Sequences
folder. This property determines whether an element will be performed only once (Single setting) or
cyclically until the termination of the simulation (Cyclic setting). If an element is set to be performed
once, after the performance it will be in Performed state. In this state the element and its sub-elements are
not included anymore into the simulation. A Performed line will be, however, still responding to the
received frames. The element stays in Performed state until its next activation, changing its Transmission
rule property or starting another simulation. Value of Transmission rule property can be changed while
the simulation is running.

Repeat mode
Repeat mode is set by default. In this mode all active elements in all lines are performed according to their
Transmission rule settings. In this mode, when all elements are performed, the simulation is still running
and the master station responds to the received frames. If this mode is disabled all active elements from all
active lines are performed only once, despite the setting of their Transmission rule property, and when all
elements are performed the simulation is stopped.

Step by Step mode

This mode can be enabled only for one active line. In this mode Next Step command performs currently
selected (bolded) element, and selects the next element from the sequence. Rules of including the element
to the simulation are the same as in the Continuous mode. Note, that if the selected element(s) is
deactivated, the next active element will be selected. If we activate any element between the last
performed and the currently selected one or change the setting of this element’s Transmission rule
property, the selection will also move back to this activated or changed element. If there is nothing more
to be performed the Next step command will be disabled.

5.2. Automatic link handling procedures

Automatic link handling procedures can be configured for each Station element separately. This

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procedures are enabled by default and can be disabled in the Station element properties. Automatic link
handling procedures allow the user to focus on defining the application layer frames, while the link layer
is handled automatically.

5.2.1. Automatic link layer responses

Automatic link layer responses property defines the behavior of the master station upon reception of a
primary link layer frame from an active station. This setting can be overwritten with a secondary frame
element.

5.2.2. Automatic link reset

Automatic link reset procedure causes the performance of the link reset before sending any Frame
element with the valid FCB bit, if the link is in un-reset state. If the link reset procedure fails, the Frame
element with the valid FCB bit will not be sent and the next element will be performed. The link is in
un-reset state when the simulation is started or after a failure of any link layer transaction.

5.2.3. Automatic DFC polling

Automatic DFC polling procedure causes the performance of link status query before processing any
Frame element using SEND link layer service, if the DFC bit set to 1 was recently received from the
associated station. If the associated station still returns the DFC bit set to 1, the Frame element will not be
sent and the next element will be performed.

5.2.4. Automatic application layer responses

Automatic application layer responses property defines the behavior of the master station upon reception
of a primary application layer frame from an active station. This setting can be overwritten with a
secondary frame element.

5.3. Sample test scenario

Let us walk through a quick tutorial covering most of the ProTester features.
To define any test scenario we have to add a line and at least one station. Our test scenario will consist of
two parts. First part called “Initialization” will be performed once (Transmission rule property set to
Single in first sequence, indicated by “1” near the element’s icon in the tree) and the second part called
“Test #1” will be performed cyclically until we terminate the simulation. Use Templates menu to add
already defined frames and toolbar buttons for other elements. Change properties of elements that are not
frames till you get a tree like this.

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Now, let us switch to Step by step mode and start the simulation. First element in the sequence will be
marked bold. After pressing Next step button an action represented by this element will be performed. In
our example the first element is a direct message, we use it to send a modem control command ATDT1.
Notice the message that appeared on the Parser view.

Wait with pressing next step until the modem establishes a connection. Now is the time to send our first
frame. In the parser view we can observe a sent frame, received response and ACKnowledgement sent by
the master station.

Sending next frame looks pretty much the same. This time we perform Delay measurement procedure and
read appropriate value from Parser view.

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We can include or exclude frames from the simulation even when it is already started. Objects excluded
from the simulation can be edited. Let us edit our “Write Time” frame and include it in the simulation.

“Write Time” frame will be marked as bold and we can perform Next step on it.

“Class 0 Scan” ends “Initialization” sequence.

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Now switch from Step by step mode to Continuous mode without stopping the simulation. “Read BI”
frame will be sent automatically.

Application should stop on user prompt element and display the following window.

Simulation will be paused until we press OK. Now we have plenty of time for example to generate some
events and observe spontaneous messages.

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After simulation is resumed next frame is sent automatically.

We can use Delay element if we want to send another frame after a certain period of time.

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The picture above shows how secondary frame elements work. After sending our “Operate open” frame
we get a response that should be confirmed on both link and application layer. Because secondary frame
type is no response (AL) only link layer ACKnowledgment will be sent. This should cause a
retransmission of application layer frame in the slave station. Retransmitted frame is correctly confirmed
on both layers, because there are no other secondary frames changing master station’s behavior.

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