Using Community Structure for Complex Network Layout

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fast, multi-scale community-based layout algorithm for complex networks that enhances interpretability and minimizes energy in network visualization.

Contribution

It combines community detection with force-directed layout to improve speed and interpretability of complex network visualizations.

Findings

Fast multi-scale community detection enables efficient network layout.

Community structure facilitates understanding large networks.

The method produces low-energy, interpretable network configurations.

Abstract

We present a new layout algorithm for complex networks that combines a multi-scale approach for community detection with a standard force-directed design. Since community detection is computationally cheap, we can exploit the multi-scale approach to generate network configurations with close-to-minimal energy very fast. As a further asset, we can use the knowledge of the community structure to facilitate the interpretation of large networks, for example the network defined by protein-protein interactions.