Partitioning Networks with Node Attributes by Compressing Information Flow
Abstract
Real-world networks are often organized as modules or communities of similar nodes that serve as functional units. These networks are also rich in content, with nodes having distinguished features or attributes. In order to discover a network’s modular structure, it is necessary to take into account not only its links but also node attributes. We describe an information-theoretic method that identifies modules by compressing descriptions of information flow on a network. Our formulation introduces node content into the description of information flow, which we then minimize to discover groups of nodes with similar attributes that also tend to trap the flow of information. The method is conceptually simple and does not require ad-hoc parameters to specify the number of modules or to control the relative contribution of links and node attributes to network structure. We apply the proposed method to partition real-world networks with known community structure. We demonstrate that adding node attributes helps recover the underlying community structure in content-rich networks more effectively than using links alone. In addition, we show that our method is faster and more accurate than alternative state-of-the-art algorithms.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 19, 2016
- Source ID
- 10.1145/2968451
Entities
People
- Allon G. Percus
- Kristina Lerman
- Laura M. Smith
- Linhong Zhu
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- California State University
- Claremont Graduate University
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- National Science Foundation
- University of Southern California