Title
Change-Point Methods on a Sequence of Graphs
Abstract
Given a finite sequence of graphs, e.g. coming from technological, biological, and social networks, the paper proposes a methodology to identify possible changes in stationarity in the stochastic process that generated such graphs. We consider a general family of attributed graphs for which both topology (vertices and edges) and associated attributes are allowed to change over time, without violating the stationarity hypothesis. Novel Change-Point Methods (CPMs) are proposed that map graphs onto vectors, apply a suitable statistical test in vector space and detect changes –if any– according to a user-defined confidence level; an estimate for the change point is provided as well. In particular, we propose two multivariate CPMs: one designed to detect shifts in the mean, the other to address more complex changes affecting the distribution. We ground our methods on theoretical results that show how the inference in the numerical vector space is related to the one in graph domain, and vice-versa. We also extend the methodology to handle multiple changes occurring in a single sequence. Results show the effectiveness of what proposed in relevant application scenarios.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/TSP.2019.2953596
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
Keywords
Field
DocType
Change-point analysis,Graphs,Graph process,Change in stationarity
Social psychology,Graph,Cognitive science,Psychology
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
67
24
1053-587X
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
0
0.34
0
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Daniele Zambon182.16
Cesare Alippi21040115.84
Lorenzo Livi330425.67