It seems that the Linux Foundation is entering consolidation mode with its growing number of networking projects. In October last year the foundation merged ON.Lab with the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). The foundation is now merging AT&T’s ECOMP and Open Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O) to create a new project called Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) Project whose focus is automating, designing, orchestrating and managing services and virtual functions.

“By combining two of the largest open source networking initiatives, the community is able to take advantage of the best architectural components of both projects,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of The Linux Foundation.

ECOMP is AT&T’s own deployment of software-defined technologies to virtualize its network. Earlier this month, AT&T decided to release it as an open source project under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation Collaborative project.

The move to merge ECOMP and OPEN-O also means that the efforts that the foundation was going to put into the short-lived ECOMP project will now go towards ONAP.

The foundation will set up a governance body and a membership structure for ONAP to build and grow the technical community around the project.