Abstract
Numerous algorithms have been proposed to infer the underlying structure of the social networks via observed information propagation. The previously proposed algorithms concentrate on inferring accurate links and neglect preserving the essential topological properties of the underlying social networks. In this paper, we propose a novel method called DANI to infer the underlying network while preserving its structural properties. DANI is constructed using the Markov transition matrix, which is derived from the analysis of time series cascades and the observation of node-node similarity in cascade behavior from a structural perspective. The presented method has linear time complexity. This means that it increases with the number of nodes, cascades, and the square of the average length of cascades. Moreover, its distributed version in the MapReduce framework is scalable. We applied the proposed approach to both real and synthetic networks. The experimental results indicated DANI exhibits higher accuracy and lower run time compared to well-known network inference methods. Furthermore, DANI preserves essential structural properties such as modular structure, degree distribution, connected components, density, and clustering coefficients. Our source code is available on GitHub ( https://github.com/AryanAhadinia/DANI ).