Link prediction in complex networks: a mutual information perspective

PLoS One. 2014 Sep 10;9(9):e107056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0107056. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Topological properties of networks are widely applied to study the link-prediction problem recently. Common Neighbors, for example, is a natural yet efficient framework. Many variants of Common Neighbors have been thus proposed to further boost the discriminative resolution of candidate links. In this paper, we reexamine the role of network topology in predicting missing links from the perspective of information theory, and present a practical approach based on the mutual information of network structures. It not only can improve the prediction accuracy substantially, but also experiences reasonable computing complexity.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms*
  • Humans
  • Information Services / statistics & numerical data*
  • Information Theory*
  • Internet / statistics & numerical data
  • Models, Statistical*
  • Protein Interaction Maps
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism

Grants and funding

The authors acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61174153. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.