Random walk based snapshot clustering for detecting community dynamics in temporal networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Blašković, Filip, Conrad, Tim O. F., Klus, Stefan, Conrad, Nataša Djurdjevac
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Blašković, Filip
Conrad, Tim O. F.
Klus, Stefan
Conrad, Nataša Djurdjevac
author_facet Blašković, Filip
Conrad, Tim O. F.
Klus, Stefan
Conrad, Nataša Djurdjevac
contents The evolution of many dynamical systems that describe relationships or interactions between objects can be effectively modeled by temporal networks, which are typically represented as a sequence of static network snapshots. In this paper, we introduce a novel random walk-based approach that can identify clusters of time-snapshots in which network community structures are stable. This allows us to detect significant structural shifts over time, such as the splitting or merging of communities or their births and deaths. We also provide a low-dimensional representation of entire snapshots, placing those with similar community structure close to each other in the feature space. To validate our approach, we develop an agent-based algorithm that generates synthetic datasets with the desired characteristic properties, enabling thorough testing and benchmarking. We further demonstrate the effectiveness and broad applicability of our technique by testing it on various social dynamics models and real-world datasets and comparing its performance to several state-of-the-art algorithms. Our findings highlight the strength of our approach to correctly capture and analyze the dynamics of complex systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_12187
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Random walk based snapshot clustering for detecting community dynamics in temporal networks
Blašković, Filip
Conrad, Tim O. F.
Klus, Stefan
Conrad, Nataša Djurdjevac
Social and Information Networks
Dynamical Systems
The evolution of many dynamical systems that describe relationships or interactions between objects can be effectively modeled by temporal networks, which are typically represented as a sequence of static network snapshots. In this paper, we introduce a novel random walk-based approach that can identify clusters of time-snapshots in which network community structures are stable. This allows us to detect significant structural shifts over time, such as the splitting or merging of communities or their births and deaths. We also provide a low-dimensional representation of entire snapshots, placing those with similar community structure close to each other in the feature space. To validate our approach, we develop an agent-based algorithm that generates synthetic datasets with the desired characteristic properties, enabling thorough testing and benchmarking. We further demonstrate the effectiveness and broad applicability of our technique by testing it on various social dynamics models and real-world datasets and comparing its performance to several state-of-the-art algorithms. Our findings highlight the strength of our approach to correctly capture and analyze the dynamics of complex systems.
title Random walk based snapshot clustering for detecting community dynamics in temporal networks
topic Social and Information Networks
Dynamical Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.12187