Integrating Relationships and Attributes: A Model of Multilayer Networks

Abstract

Various network relationships in many complex social systems can be described effectively by multilayer networks, but we find that there are interactions between individuals attributes and their social relationships by a principle of homophily, which hence impact the process of information spread and social influence in complex social systems. In order to integrate individuals relationships and attributes in complex social systems effectively, we extract the hidden information of individuals attributes to build a relationships-attributes-based model of multi-layer networks. Proposing that using information entropy which satisfies the conditions of degree distribution and community features to evaluate information values for each network in the multilayer networks, we construct a more reasonable integrated network to solve the problems of data compression reduction of multilayer networks. In addition, we analyze the relationships-attributes-based multilayer networks from the perspectives of the structure of the multilayer networks and the structure of the integrated network on two empirical data. The results verify the correlation between attribute networks and relationship networks, and give more insights into the importance of the proposed relationships-attributes-based model of multilayer networks and the positive role of the integrated network in synthesizing the relationships-attributes-based multilayer networks.