Generating Directed & Weighted Synthetic Graphs using Low-Rank Approximations

Abstract: Generative models for creating realistic synthetic graphs constitute a research area that is increasing in popularity, especially as the use of graph data is becoming increasingly common. Generating realistic synthetic graphs enables sharing of the information embedded in graphs without directly sharing the original graphs themselves. This can in turn contribute to an increase of knowledge within several domains where access to data is normally restricted, including the financial system and social networks. In this study, it is examined how existing generative models can be extended to be compatible with directed and weighted graphs, without limiting the models to generating graphs of a specific domain. Several models are evaluated, and all use low-rank approximations to learn structural properties of directed graphs. Additionally, it is evaluated how node embeddings can be used with a regression model to add realistic edge weights to directed graphs. The results show that the evaluated methods are capable of reproducing global statistics from the original directed graphs to a promising degree, without having more than 52% overlap in terms of edges. The results also indicate that realistic directed and weighted graphs can be generated from directed graphs by predicting edge weights using pairs of node embeddings. However, the results vary depending on which node embedding technique is used.