A Framework for Community Detection in Large Networks Using Game-Theoretic Modeling

Abstract

Community detection is a fundamental component of large network analysis. In both academia and industry, progressive research has been made on problems related to community network analysis. Community detection is gaining significant attention and importance in the area of network science. Regular and synthetic complex networks have motivated intense interest in studying the fundamental unifying principles of various complex networks. This paper presents a new game-theoretic approach towards community detection in large-scale complex networks based on modified modularity; this method was developed based on modified adjacency, modified Laplacian matrices and neighborhood similarity. This approach was used to partition a given network into dense communities. It is based on determining a Nash stable partition, which is a pure strategy Nash equilibrium of an appropriately defined strategic game in which the nodes of the network were the players and the strategy of a node was to decide to which community it ought to belong. Players chose to belong to a community according to a maximized fitness/payoff. Quality of the community networks was assessed using modified modularity along with a new fitness function. Community partitioning was performed using Normalized Mutual Information and a ‘modularity measure’, which involved comparing the new game-theoretic community detection algorithm (NGTCDA) with well-studied and well-known algorithms, such as Fast Newman, Fast Modularity Detection, and Louvain Community. The quality of a network partition in communities was evaluated by looking at the contribution of each node and its neighbors against the strength of its community.