Optimization of Product Instantiation using Integer Programming

We show that Integer Programming (IP) can be used as an optimization technique for the instantiation of products of feature models. This is done by showing that the constraints of feature models can be written in linear form. As particular IP technique, we use Gomory cutting planes. We have applied this technique to a test suite of feature models from the literature, and found that the Gomory cutting planes can be used to improve the feature models. We discuss a number of applications: analysis of feature models, resolving configuration errors and optimization of product instantiation.