Method and apparatus relating to agents

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium having computer readable code embodied therein, the computer readable code being configured such that, on execution by a computer or processor, the computer or processor is caused to perform operations in a management node for use with a cognitive layer, CL, that is used to improve or manage a system, wherein the CL comprises a plurality of agents, wherein the agents have respective agent information, the respective agent information indicating one or more types of input data required by a model implemented by the agent, one or more parameters of the system that are to be improved by the agent, one or more types of output data provided by the model implemented by the agent and a data distribution for the agent, the operations in the management node comprising:

• (i) selecting a set of similar agents from the plurality of agents that improve a first parameter of the system, wherein similar agents are selected on the basis of similarities or matches in the one or more types of input data, the one or more types of parameters of the system improved by the agent, and the one or more types of output data;
• (ii) for a first agent and a second agent in the selected set of similar agents, comparing the data distribution for the first agent to the data distribution for the second agent to determine a relationship between the data distributions;
• (iii) initiating generation of one or more candidate agents based on the determined relationship;
• and
• (iv) determining whether to replace one or both of the first agent and the second agent with the one or more candidate agents based on a comparison of a performance of the one or more candidate agents with respect to a performance of the first agent and/or a performance of the second agent.

A management node for use with a cognitive layer, CL, that is used to improve or manage a system, wherein the CL comprises a plurality of agents, wherein the agents have respective agent information, the respective agent information indicating one or more types of input data required by a model implemented by the agent, one or more parameters of the system that are to be improved by the agent, one or more types of output data provided by the model implemented by the agent and a data distribution for the agent, wherein the management node is configured to:

• (i) select a set of similar agents from the plurality of agents that improve a first parameter of the system, wherein similar agents are selected on the basis of similarities or matches in the one or more types of input data, the one or more types of parameters of the system improved by the agent, and the one or more types of output data;
• (ii) for a first agent and a second agent in the selected set of similar agents, compare the data distribution for the first agent to the data distribution for the second agent to determine a relationship between the data distributions;
• (iii) initiate generation of one or more candidate agents based on the determined relationship;
• and
• (iv) determine whether to replace one or both of the first agent and the second agent with the one or more candidate agents based on a comparison of a performance of the one or more candidate agents with respect to a performance of the first agent and/or a performance of the second agent.