Game theory and extremal optimization for community detection in complex dynamic networks

PLoS One. 2014 Feb 26;9(2):e86891. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0086891. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The detection of evolving communities in dynamic complex networks is a challenging problem that recently received attention from the research community. Dynamics clearly add another complexity dimension to the difficult task of community detection. Methods should be able to detect changes in the network structure and produce a set of community structures corresponding to different timestamps and reflecting the evolution in time of network data. We propose a novel approach based on game theory elements and extremal optimization to address dynamic communities detection. Thus, the problem is formulated as a mathematical game in which nodes take the role of players that seek to choose a community that maximizes their profit viewed as a fitness function. Numerical results obtained for both synthetic and real-world networks illustrate the competitive performance of this game theoretical approach.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Game Theory*

Grants and funding

This research is supported by Grant PN II TE 320, “Emergence, auto-organization and evolution: New computational models in the study of complex systems,” funded by CNCS Romania (http://uefiscdi.gov.ro/articole/1966/Proiecte-de-cercetare-pentru-stimularea-constituirii-de-tinere-echipe-de-cercetareindependente-ti.html). The first author would like to acknowledge the support received within the PN-II-PT-PCCA-2011-3.1-0682 OPEN-RES Academic Writing project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.