Managing node disappearance based on information flow in social networks

Social networks are dynamic structures in which entities and links appear and disappear for different reasons. Starting from the observation that each entity plays a more or less important role in transmitting the information inside a network, the objective of this article is to propose a method which exploits the role played by a given node to both estimate the impact of its disappearance on the information flow, and conduct network changes to restore the information flow with a similar quality as before the node disappearance. To this end, we propose a network restructuring approach that categorizes nodes into critical and non-critical classes based on their role, and hence, manages their disappearance appropriately by adding new links in a parsimonious way and selecting a substitute for a deleted critical node. As opposed to a previously defined solution, our approach adds links that are just enough to maintain the quality of the information flow within the network as before a node deletion. A prototype is designed and implemented using an open source social network analysis library (NetworkX). Its validation is conducted using network data sets with various sizes. The empirical study shows a low network update, a quite constant quality of the information flow and reasonable execution times after a node deletion.