A Novel Multilayer Model for Link Prediction in Online Social Networks Based on Reliable Paths

Fariba Sarhangnia, Nona Ali Asgharzadeholiaee () and Milad Boshkani Zadeh ()
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Fariba Sarhangnia: Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran
Nona Ali Asgharzadeholiaee: Department of Computer Engineering, University of Tehran Kish International Campus, Kish, Iran
Milad Boshkani Zadeh: Department of Computer Engineering, Ahram Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahram, Iran

Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), 2022, vol. 21, issue 02, 1-16

Abstract: Link Prediction (LP) is one of the critical problems in Online Social Networks (OSNs) analysis. LP is a technique for predicting forthcoming or missing links based on current information in the OSN. Typically, modelling an OSN platform is done in a single-layer scheme. However, this is a limitation which might lead to incorrect descriptions of some real-world details. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents a multilayer model of OSN for the LP problem by analysing Twitter and Foursquare networks. LP in multilayer networks involves performing LP on a target layer benefitting from the structural information of the other layers. Here, a novel criterion is proposed, which calculates the similarity between users by forming intralayer and interlayer links in a two-layer network (i.e. Twitter and Foursquare). Particularly, LP in the Foursquare layer is done by considering the two-layer structural information. In this paper, according to the available information from the Twitter and Foursquare OSNs, a weighted graph is created and then various topological features are extracted from it. Based on the extracted features, a database with two classes of link existence and no link has been created, and therefore the problem of LP has become a two-class classification problem that can be solved by supervised learning methods. To prove the better performance of the proposed method, Katz and FriendLink indices as well as SEM-Path algorithm have been used for comparison. Evaluations results show that the proposed method can predict new links with better precision.

Keywords: Online social networks; link prediction; multilayer models; similarity criteria; reliable paths (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219649222500253

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