The structure of real-world social networks in large part determines the evolution of social phenomena, including opinion formation, diffusion of information and influence, and the spread of disease. Globally, network structure is characterized by features such as degree distribution, degree assortativity, and clustering coefficient. However, information about global structure is usually not available to each vertex. Instead, each vertex's knowledge is generally limited to the locally observable portion of the network consisting of the subgraph over its immediate neighbors. Such subgraphs, known as ego networks, have properties that can differ substantially from those of the global network. In this paper, we study the structural properties of ego networks and show how they relate to the global properties of networks from which they are derived. Through empirical comparisons and mathematical derivations, we show that structural features, similar to static attributes, suffer from paradoxes. We quantify the differences between global information about network structure and local estimates. This knowledge allows us to better identify and correct the biases arising from incomplete local information.
Being a third order correlation measure, clustering coefficient displays dependencies on both degree distribution and degree correlations or assortativity @cite_19 . The interplay between degree correlations and clustering is further complicated by the fact that each edge can form multiple triangles. It has been shown that negative degree correlations can limit the maximum value of @math , as triangles are less likely to appear with disassortative connections @cite_26 .
@cite_19 @cite_26
2016755074 1511938660 2145244355 2150191198
We present a generator of random networks where both the degree-dependent clustering coefficient and the degree distribution are tunable. Following the same philosophy as in the configuration model, the degree distribution and the clustering coefficient for each class of nodes of degree @math are fixed ad hoc and a priori. The algorithm generates corresponding topologies by applying first a closure of triangles and second the classical closure of remaining free stubs. The procedure unveils an universal relation among clustering and degree-degree correlations for all networks, where the level of assortativity establishes an upper limit to the level of clustering. Maximum assortativity ensures no restriction on the decay of the clustering coefficient whereas disassortativity sets a stronger constraint on its behavior. Correlation measures in real networks are seen to observe this structural bound. We consider the following general correlation-clustering problem [1]: given a graph with real edge weights (both positive and negative), partition the vertices into clusters to minimize the total absolute weight of cut positive edges and uncut negative edges. Thus, large positive weights (representing strong correlations between endpoints) encourage those endpoints to belong to a common cluster; large negative weights encourage the endpoints to belong to different clusters; and weights with small absolute value represent little information. In contrast to most clustering problems, correlation clustering specifies neither the desired number of clusters nor a distance threshold for clustering; both of these parameters are effectively chosen to be the best possible by the problem definition. We establish asymptotic vertex degree distribution and examine its relation to the clustering coecient in two popular random intersection graph models of Godehardt and Jaworski (2001). For sparse graphs with positive clustering coecient, we examine statistical dependence between the (local) clustering coecient and the degree. Our results are mathematically rigorous. They are consistent with the empirical observation of (2011) that correlates negatively with degree." Moreover, they explain empirical results on k 1 scaling of the local clustering coecient of a vertex of degree k reported in Ravasz and Barab asi (2003). We consider sparse random intersection graphs with the property that the clustering coefficient does not vanish as the number of nodes tends to infinity. We find explicit asymptotic expressions for the correlation coefficient of degrees of adjacent nodes (called the assortativity coefficient), the expected number of common neighbours of adjacent nodes, and the expected degree of a neighbour of a node of a given degree k. These expressions are written in terms of the asymptotic degree distribution and, alternatively, in terms of the parameters defining the underlying random graph model.