CenturyLink acquired certain assets of the company formerly known as Active Broadband Networks, a provider of software-based broadband networking. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A spokesperson for CenturyLink said in an email to SDxCentral, “CenturyLink is acquiring Active Broadband Networks' virtual broadband network gateway software stack and an OpenDaylight-based software-defined network controller stack to help accelerate the delivery of virtualization services to our customers.”

Thirteen employees from Active Broadband Networks will join CenturyLink as part of its testing and integration team.

CenturyLink says the acquired assets will help it automate its network, move network functions into the cloud, and accelerate its software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) aspirations.

The service provider set a goal to have full global virtualization coverage in its IP core network and data centers by 2018.

Active Broadband Networks has been selling off its assets. Earlier this month, the company sold its operations support systems (OSS) business assets to the Volaris Group. Volaris made the assets a business unit of its subsidiary Incognito Software Systems.

Active Broadband Networks was based in Framingham, Massachusetts. As recently as April 2016, the company promoted its programmable gateway in SDxCentral’s Mega NFV Report. Its SDN and NFV technologies target the broadband edge of service providers’ networks.