THE IMPORTANT

NODES IN A
NETWORK
How to measure importance of a node?

1. Text Content:
 Document text held at individual nodes (web pages, Facebook pages)
 Text snippets on embedded links
2. Graph relationships:
 Structure of the network around the node
 Measure the importance of the node in the network

3. Mixture of both
Measures Used In Physical Networks

Identifying the key nodes can help to enhance the survivability and robustness of complex
networks by protecting key nodes of complex networks.
 Measures Used In Sociology and Management

Social network analysis (SNA) is the

process of investigating social
structures through the use
of network and graph theory.

Organizational network
analysis (ONA) is a method for
studying communication and socio-
technical networks within a formal
organization.
Why We Are Trying to Find Important Nodes

■ Determine which nodes are common and find out what they're talking about.
■ Epidemics can be avoided.
■ Influence the decision-making process.
■ Allow for the rapid distribution of information or advertisements.
■ Defend the network from damage.
How to Measure Importance of a Node?

■ The definitions we give are for connected graphs.

■ We use centrality measures of the importance of a vertex.
■ We consider the network abstracted as a graph or digraph.
■ Typically these are measures of connectivity of a vertex.

Note: These measures can sometimes be calculated in more than one way.
 Typical Measures
■ Degree-based Centrality Measures
• Degree Centrality: measure of the number of vertices adjacent to a vertex
(degree) .
• Eigenvector Centrality: measure of the degree of the vertex as well as the degree of
its neighbors.
 Shortest-path based Centrality Measures
• Betweenness Centrality: measure of the number of shortest paths a node is
part of
• Closeness Centrality: measure of how close is a vertex to the other vertices
[sum of the shortest path distances]
 Degree Centrality Example

Weakness: Very likely that more than one vertex has the same degree and not possible to
uniquely rank the vertices
 Eigenvector Centrality Example
Iteration 1
0 1 11 0 01 3 0 .401
■      
3
 
1 0 10 1 01 0.401
1
1
1
0
01
10
1
0
X 01
11
= 4
3
Ξ 0.534
0.401
0 1 10 0 11 3 0.401
0 0 01 1 01 2 0.267

Normalized Value: 7.48

Iteration 2
0
  1 11 0 0 0
  .401 1.336 0  .429
 
1 0 10 1 0 0.401 1.336 0.429
1 1 01 1 0 0.534 1.604
1 0 10 0 1 X 0.401 = 1.202 Ξ 0.515
0.386
0 1 10 0 1 0.401 1.202 0.386
0 0 01 1 0 0.267 0.802 0.257

Normalized Value: 3.11

Iteration 3
0
  1 11 0 0 0
  .429 1.330 0  .427
 
1 0 10 1 0 0.429 1.330 0.427
1 1 01 1 0 0.515 1.630 0.524
1 0 10 0 1 X 0.386 = 1.201 Ξ 0.386
0 1 10 0 1 0.386 1.201 0.386
0 0 01 1 0 0.257 0.772 0.248

Normalized Value: 3.11

After 3 iterations:

Vertex ID 1 2 3 4 5 6

Principal 0.427 0.427 0.524 0.386 0.386 0.248

Eigenvector
 Betweenness Centrality Example
For vertices 2, 7 and
8 Betweenness = 0

Betweenness for Vertex 6

Pair (1,7) -> 1/1
Pair (1,8) -> 1/1
Pair (2,7) -> 2/2
Pair (2,8) -> 2/2
Pair (3,7) -> 1/1
Pair (3,8) -> 1/1
Betweenness for Vertex 1 Betweenness for Vertex 3 Pair (4,7) -> 1/1
Pair (2,4) -> 1/2 Pair (2,4) -> 1/2 Pair (4,8) -> 1/1
Pair (2,5) -> 1/2 Pair (2,5) -> 1/2 Pair (5,7) -> 1/1
Pair (2,6) -> 1/2 Pair (2,6) -> 1/2 Pair (5,8) -> 1/1
Pair (2,7) -> 1/2 Pair (2,7) -> 1/2 Betweenness (6) = 10
Pair (2,8) -> 1/2 Pair (2,8) -> 1/2
Betweenness (1) = 2.5 Betweenness (3) = 2.5
Betweenness for Vertex 4 Betweenness for Vertex 5 ID Betweenness
Pair (1,5) -> 1/1 Pair (1,6) -> 1/1 1 2.5
Pair (1,6) -> 1/1 Pair (1,7) -> 1/1 2 0
Pair (1,7) -> 1/1 Pair (1,8) -> 1/1 3 2.5
Pair (1,8) -> 1/1 Pair (2,6) -> 2/2 4 12
Pair (2,5) -> 2/2 Pair (2,7) -> 2/2 5 12
Pair (2,6) -> 2/2 Pair (2,8) -> 2/2 6 10
Pair (2,7) -> 2/2 Pair (3,6) -> 1/1 7 0
Pair (2,8) -> 2/2 Pair (3,7) -> 1/1 8 0
Pair (3,5) -> 1/1 Pair (3,8) -> 1/1
Pair (3,6) -> 1/1 Pair (4,6) -> 1/1
Pair (3,7) -> 1/1 Pair (4,7) -> 1/1
Pair (3,8) -> 1/1 Pair (4,8) -> 1/1
Betweenness (4) = 12 Betweenness (5) = 12
 Closeness Centrality Example
1
 𝐶 𝑖 ( 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠) = 𝑁

∑ 𝑑 𝑖𝑗
𝑗 =1

Sum of
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 distances Closeness
1 0
  1 11 1 23 2 11 0.0909
2 1 0 22 2 12 1 11 0.0909
3 1 2 02 2 3 4 3 17 0.0588
4 1 2 20 2 3 4 3 17 0.0588
5 1 2 22 0 3 4 3 17 0.0588
6 2 1 33 3 01 2 15 0.0667
7 3 2 44 4 10 3 21 0.0476
8 2 1 33 3 23 0 17 0.0588
Distance Matrix