RT Journal Article T1 A modular metamodel and refactoring rules to achieve software product line interoperability. A1 Horcas-Aguilera, José Miguel A1 Pinto-Alarcón, Mónica A1 Fuentes-Fernández, Lidia K1 Computación K1 Ingeniería del software K1 Protocolos de comunicaciones AB Emergent application domains, such as cyber–physical systems, edge computing or industry 4.0. present a high variability in software and hardware infrastructures. However, no single variability modeling language supports all language extensions required by these application domains (i.e., attributes, group cardinalities, clonables, complex constraints). This limitation is an open challenge that should be tackled by the software engineering field, and specifically by the software product line (SPL) community. A possible solution could be to define a completely new language, but this has a high cost in terms of adoption time and development of new tools. A more viable alternative is the definition of refactoring and specialization rules that allow interoperability between existing variability languages. However, with this approach, these rules cannot be reused across languages because each language uses a different set of modeling concepts and a different concrete syntax. Our approach relies on a modular and extensible metamodel that defines a common abstract syntax for existing variability modeling extensions. We map existing feature modeling languages in the SPL community to our common abstract syntax. Using our abstract syntax, we define refactoring rules at the language construct level that help to achieve interoperability between variability modeling languages. PB Elsevier YR 2022 FD 2022-12-05 LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26444 UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/26444 LA eng NO Horcas, J. M., Pinto, M., & Fuentes, L. (2023). A modular metamodel and refactoring rules to achieve software product line interoperability. Journal of Systems and Software, 197, 111579. NO Work supported by the projects MEDEA RTI2018-099213-B-I00, IRIS PID2021-122812OB-I00 (co-financed by FEDER funds), Rhea P18-FR-1081 (MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE), LEIA UMA18-FEDERIA-157, and DAEMON H2020-101017109. // Funding for open access: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA . DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga RD 19 ene 2026