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Clustering Social Networks Using Competing Ant Hives

  • Pascal Held
  • , Alexander Dockhorn
  • , Benjamin Krause
  • , Rudolf Kruse

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference contributionResearchpeer review

Abstract

Methods for clustering static graphs cannot always be transferred straight forward to dynamic scenarios. A typical approach is to reduce the number of updates by reusing results of previous iterations. But are there natural ways to implement dynamic graph clustering? This paper proposes a method, which was derived by graph based ant colony algorithms. Similar to other clustering algorithms, multiple ant colonies are competing for the available nodes. Each hive creates ants, which will explore nearby graph structures and drop hive-specific pheromones on visited nodes. Over time, hives will collect nodes and will be relocated to the center of all collected nodes. In case of dynamic graph clustering, pheromone values can be reused in consecutive iterations. Our evaluation revealed that the proposed algorithm can lead to results on a par with the k-median algorithm and performs worse than Louvain clustering. However competing ant hives have the advantage of implicit noise detection, which comes at the cost of longer computation times. This can make it a suitable choice for certain clustering tasks.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2nd European Network Intelligence Conference, ENIC 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages67-74
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9781467375924
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Nov 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event2nd European Network Intelligence Conference, ENIC 2015 - Karlskrona, Switzerland
Duration: 21 Sept 201522 Sept 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2nd European Network Intelligence Conference, ENIC 2015

Conference

Conference2nd European Network Intelligence Conference, ENIC 2015
Country/TerritorySwitzerland
CityKarlskrona
Period21 Sept 201522 Sept 2015

Keywords

  • Ant Hives
  • Clustering
  • Community Detection
  • Social Network Analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems

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