Information transfer in community structured multiplex networks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how community structures within multilayer social networks influence the efficiency of information diffusion, revealing complex interactions between mesoscopic communities and the multilayer architecture.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of information transfer in community-structured multilayer networks, highlighting the impact of community organization on diffusion processes.

Findings

Community structure can both enhance and hinder information diffusion.

Multilayer interactions significantly affect diffusion dynamics.

Community coherence across layers influences overall information transfer.

Abstract

The study of complex networks that account for different types of interactions has become a subject of interest in the last few years, specially because its representational power in the description of users interactions in diverse online social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). The mathematical description of these interacting networks has been coined under the name of multilayer networks, where each layer accounts for a type of interaction. It has been shown that diffusive processes on top of these networks present a phenomenology that cannot be explained by the naive superposition of single layer diffusive phenomena but require the whole structure of interconnected layers. Nevertheless, the description of diffusive phenomena on multilayer networks has obviated the fact that social networks have strong mesoscopic structure represented by different communities of individuals driven by common interests, or any other social aspect. In this work, we study the transfer of information in multilayer networks with community structure. The final goal is to understand and quantify, if the existence of well-defined community structure at the level of individual layers, together with the multilayer structure of the whole network, enhances or deteriorates the diffusion of packets of information.