A Survey of Link Prediction in Temporal Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xiong, Jiafeng, Zareie, Ahmad, Sakellariou, Rizos
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Xiong, Jiafeng
Zareie, Ahmad
Sakellariou, Rizos
author_facet Xiong, Jiafeng
Zareie, Ahmad
Sakellariou, Rizos
contents Temporal networks have gained significant prominence in the past decade for modelling dynamic interactions within complex systems. A key challenge in this domain is Temporal Link Prediction (TLP), which aims to forecast future connections by analysing historical network structures across various applications including social network analysis. While existing surveys have addressed specific aspects of TLP, they typically lack a comprehensive framework that distinguishes between representation and inference methods. This survey bridges this gap by introducing a novel taxonomy that explicitly examines representation and inference from existing methods, providing a novel classification of approaches for TLP. We analyse how different representation techniques capture temporal and structural dynamics, examining their compatibility with various inference methods for both transductive and inductive prediction tasks. Our taxonomy not only clarifies the methodological landscape but also reveals promising unexplored combinations of existing techniques. This taxonomy provides a systematic foundation for emerging challenges in TLP, including model explainability and scalable architectures for complex temporal networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_21185
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Survey of Link Prediction in Temporal Networks
Xiong, Jiafeng
Zareie, Ahmad
Sakellariou, Rizos
Artificial Intelligence
Social and Information Networks
Temporal networks have gained significant prominence in the past decade for modelling dynamic interactions within complex systems. A key challenge in this domain is Temporal Link Prediction (TLP), which aims to forecast future connections by analysing historical network structures across various applications including social network analysis. While existing surveys have addressed specific aspects of TLP, they typically lack a comprehensive framework that distinguishes between representation and inference methods. This survey bridges this gap by introducing a novel taxonomy that explicitly examines representation and inference from existing methods, providing a novel classification of approaches for TLP. We analyse how different representation techniques capture temporal and structural dynamics, examining their compatibility with various inference methods for both transductive and inductive prediction tasks. Our taxonomy not only clarifies the methodological landscape but also reveals promising unexplored combinations of existing techniques. This taxonomy provides a systematic foundation for emerging challenges in TLP, including model explainability and scalable architectures for complex temporal networks.
title A Survey of Link Prediction in Temporal Networks
topic Artificial Intelligence
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.21185