Modelling Compositions of Modular Embedded Software Product Lines
Wolfgang Friess, Audi Ag, Julio Sincero, W. Schroeder-Preikschat · 2007
Coping with lots of variants is a challenging task in the field of embedded software development. Due to the restricted hardware resources in this domain, it is essential for the embedded system software to be highly adaptable to the specific needs of the application and no unused functionality is implemented. Configurable system software can realise this adaption, but it brings the problem of variant management in this domain. Currently, software product line methods are in the focus of research to cope with high amounts of software variants. But current methods lack of support for systems composed of several subsystems, configured independently. However, such modular systems are very common in the domain of embedded software. This paper introduces a concept for modelling compositions of several software product lines, like the composition of an application software product line and an operating system product line, for example. With this concept, it is possible to model not only single software product lines but also compositions of several ones. This supports the development of modular software systems with high variability. After that, an implementation of a tool for verifying compositions based on this concept is presented.