Link prediction based on local major path degree

Abstract

Link prediction can estimate the probablity of the existence of an unknown or future edges between two arbitrary disconnected nodes (two seed nodes) in complex networks on the basis of information regarding network nodes, edges and topology. With the important practical value in many fields such as social networks, electronic commerce, data mining and biological networks, link prediction is attracting considerable attention from scientists in various fields. In this paper, we find that degree distribution and strength of two- and three-step local paths between two seed nodes can reveal effective similarity information between the two nodes. An index called local major path degree (LMPD) is proposed to estimate the probability of generating a link between two seed nodes. To indicate the efficiency of this algorithm, we compare it with nine well-known similarity indices based on local information in 12 real networks. Results show that the LMPD algorithm can achieve high prediction performance.