Comparing directed networks via denoising graphlet distributions. (2nd March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Silva, Miguel E P; Gaunt, Robert E; Ospina-Forero, Luis; Jay, Caroline; House, Thomas
• Is Part Of: Journal of complex networks. Volume 11:Number 2(2023)
• Publication Date: 2023-03-02
• Subjects: directed networks -- network comparison -- network topology -- principal component analysis -- independent component analysis; Numerical analysis -- Periodicals; Computer networks -- Periodicals; Social networks -- Periodicals; 518.05
• DOI: 10.1093/comnet/cnad006
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2051-1310

Abstract

Abstract: Network comparison is a widely used tool for analysing complex systems, with applications in varied domains including comparison of protein interactions or highlighting changes in structure of trade networks. In recent years, a number of network comparison methodologies based on the distribution of graphlets (small connected network subgraphs) have been introduced. In particular, NetEmd has recently achieved state of the art performance in undirected networks. In this work, we propose an extension of NetEmd to directed networks and deal with the significant increase in complexity of graphlet structure in the directed case by denoising through linear projections. Simulation results show that our framework is able to improve on the performance of a simple translation of the undirected NetEmd algorithm to the directed case, especially when networks differ in size and density.