Network orchestration and connectivity assurance vendor Axon Networks acquired software-defined mobile network solutions company Greenwave Systems.

Founded by former Cisco executives in 2008, Greenwave offers a network-as-a-service (NaaS) connectivity platform dubbed Wavely that centers on a software-defined mobile network core and NaaS orchestration tooling. This allows operators to manage connectivity services without traditional hardware-bound infrastructure.

The acquisition will see Greenwave’s Wavely portfolio integrated into Axon’s flagship Maestro platform, a move the vendor said will help its orchestration offering provide customers with operating and business support services (OSS/BSS) inventory management systems.

No financial details were disclosed. SDxCentral understands the acquisition closed a few weeks prior, with Axon working with customers and vendors on a one-on-one basis to ensure they’re able to transition across to the new platform.

A twist to the acquisition tale is that Axon CEO Martin Manniche actually founded both companies. Manniche served as CTO of Cisco's Linksys home networking division, which has since been rebranded as the Consumer Business Group (CBG), before leaving to start Greenwave. Manniche would go on to co-found and invest in several firms before taking the reins at Axon in 2021.

“By bringing together Greenwave’s expertise and the Wavely technology portfolio with the Axon Maestro AI-first automation platform, we’re able to provide a simplified, unified, and AI-automated OSS/BSS architecture,” Manniche said of the deal. “Combining these solutions into one platform promises to accelerate operator and enterprise new service time-to-market and improve the subscriber and network operator experience by removing complex dependencies.”

The deal also hands Axon a team of cloud-native OSS/BSS specialists with mobile network deployment experience, which the company said will accelerate development of new OSS service management modules within Maestro.

Axon contends the acquisition’s rationale stems from endemic pain points whereby operators are increasingly locked into bespoke OSS that demand heavy customization and ongoing professional services, leaving inventory management systems out of sync and built on poorly correlated data.

The Irvine, California-based vendor wants Greenwave’s Wavely integration to help it offer a unified architecture capable of real-time, accurate inventory management without the usual integration overhead.

There is also a forward-looking wireless angle to the deal. Axon said operators pursuing fixed-wireless access (FWA) and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services will increasingly require end-to-end orchestration running from the mobile core through to in-home devices.

“This acquisition brings our platform heritage fully under one roof and allows us to continue moving forward with a clear focus: delivering AI-native, digital twin-driven operations for mass market and enterprise networks across both traditional fixed network and emerging technologies such as FWA and LEO satellites,” Axon CTO Siddhartha Dattagupta added. “By consolidating intellectual property, engineering expertise, and platform assets that originated at Greenwave and later evolved within Axon into one engineering team, we are formalizing the integration of technologies that have played a foundational role in our evolution while strengthening our unified platform strategy.”