Identifying critical nodes in temporal networks by network embedding

Abstract

Critical nodes in temporal networks play more significant role than other nodes on the structure and function of networks. The research on identifying critical nodes in temporal networks has attracted much attention since the real-world systems can be illustrated more accurately by temporal networks than static networks. Considering the topological information of networks, the algorithm MLI based on network embedding and machine learning are proposed in this paper. we convert the critical node identification problem in temporal networks into regression problem by the algorithm. The effectiveness of proposed methods is evaluated by SIR model and compared with well-known existing metrics such as temporal versions of betweenness, closeness, k-shell, degree deviation and dynamics-sensitive centralities in one synthetic and five real temporal networks. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperform these well-known methods in identifying critical nodes under spreading dynamic.