Reconstructing distant interactions of multiple paths between perceptible nodes in dark networks.

Abstract

Quantitative research of interdisciplinary fields, including biological and social systems, has attracted great attention in recent years. Complex networks are popular and important tools for the investigations. Explosively increasing data are created by practical networks, from which useful information about dynamic networks can be extracted. From data to network structure, i.e., network reconstruction, is a crucial task. There are many difficulties in fulfilling network reconstruction, including data shortage (existence of hidden nodes) and time delay for signal propagation between adjacent nodes. In this paper a deep network reconstruction method is proposed, which can work in the conditions that even only two nodes (say A and B) are perceptible and all other network nodes are hidden. With a well-designed stochastic driving on node A, this method can reconstruct multiple interaction paths from A to B based on measured data. The distance, effective intensity, and transmission time delay of each path can be inferred accurately.