Qualitative Comparison of Community Detection Algorithms
Community detection is a very active field in complex networks analysis, consisting in identifying groups of nodes more densely interconnected relatively to the rest of the network. The existing algorithms are usually tested and compared on real-world and artificial networks, their performance being assessed through some partition similarity measure. However, artificial networks realism can be questioned, and the appropriateness of those measures is not obvious. In this study, we take advantage of recent advances concerning the characterization of community structures to tackle these questions. We first generate networks thanks to the most realistic model available to date. Their analysis r…
Towards realistic artificial benchmark for community detection algorithms evaluation
Many algorithms have been proposed for revealing the community structure in complex networks. Tests under a wide range of realistic conditions must be performed in order to select the most appropriate for a particular application. Artificially generated networks are often used for this purpose. The most realistic generative method to date has been proposed by Lancichinetti, Fortunato and Radicchi (LFR). However, it does not produce networks with some typical features of real-world networks. To overcome this drawback, we investigate two alternative modifications of this algorithm. Experimental results show that in both cases, centralisation and degree correlation values of generated networks…
An Empirical Study of the Relation Between Community Structure and Transitivity
One of the most prominent properties in real-world networks is the presence of a community structure, i.e. dense and loosely interconnected groups of nodes called communities. In an attempt to better understand this concept, we study the relationship between the strength of the community structure and the network transitivity (or clustering coefficient). Although intuitively appealing, this analysis was not performed before. We adopt an approach based on random models to empirically study how one property varies depending on the other. It turns out the transitivity increases with the community structure strength, and is also affected by the distribution of the community sizes. Furthermore, …
Comparative Evaluation of Community Detection Algorithms: A Topological Approach
International audience; Community detection is one of the most active fields in complex networks analysis, due to its potential value in practical applications. Many works inspired by different paradigms are devoted to the development of algorithmic solutions allowing to reveal the network structure in such cohesive subgroups. Comparative studies reported in the literature usually rely on a performance measure considering the community structure as a partition (Rand Index, Normalized Mutual information, etc.). However, this type of comparison neglects the topological properties of the communities. In this article, we present a comprehensive comparative study of a representative set of commu…