Abstract: A method for training a Software Agent to control a communication network is disclosed. The method comprises initialising a training network slice within the communication network, instantiating within the training network slice a cloned version of at least one Virtualised Network Function (VNF) comprised within a production network slice, mirroring traffic incoming to the VNFs of the production network slice and forwarding the mirrored traffic to the training network slice. The method further comprises causing a training instance of the Software Agent to execute a Reinforcement Learning algorithm on the training network slice, and transferring knowledge acquired by the training instance of the Software Agent to a production instance of the Software Agent. Also disclosed are an apparatus and a computer program configured to carry out methods for training a Software Agent to control a communication network.

Abstract: A method of managing a node in a cluster of nodes in an SDN network. The method comprising receiving from the node a request to join the cluster and a list of references authenticating the node. The references are verified and if the referenced passed the verification the node is allowed to join the cluster. Then a trust level of the node is calculated based on the number of verified references, wherein a role of the node in the cluster depends on the trust level of said node.