A communications network test system facilitates autonomous or
attendant-free interaction between the administrative interfaces of
multiple network devices under test. The test system includes
device-specific communication interface packages that map generic
commands to device-specific commands. A generic package includes generic
procedures that access the device-specific packages to perform common
functions, such as startup and cleanup. Test cases can thus be written
using the generic commands without requiring the tester to have knowledge
of device-specific demands. In addition, multiple devices can be
simultaneously tested and monitored using a single test platform.