Structural properties and generative model of non-giant connected components in social networks

Abstract

Most previous studies have mainly focused on the analyses of one entire network (graph) or the giant connected components of networks. In this paper, we investigate the disconnected components (non-giant connected component) of some real social networks, and report some interesting discoveries about structural properties of disconnected components. We study three diverse, real networks and compute the significance profile of each component. We discover some similarities in the local structure between the giant connected component and disconnected components in diverse social networks. Then we discuss how to detect network attacks based on the local structure properties of networks. Furthermore, we propose an empirical generative model called iFriends to generate networks that follow our observed patterns.