Patent Document ID: 9929909
Application ID: 14840647
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method, comprising: determining, across a network comprising multiple nodes, one or more target nodes in relation to a query node, wherein said determining comprises calculating a matching score for each of the multiple nodes based on one or more attributes identified in a query associated with the query node, and wherein said determining is carried out by a matching algorithm executing on a computing device; computing a benefit score for each of the multiple nodes, wherein the benefit score measures the reachability from a given node to the one or more target nodes in the network; computing a loss score for each of the multiple nodes, wherein the loss score measures the reachability from a given node to the non-target nodes in the network; computing a probability associated with each of multiple edges in the network that connects two or more of the multiple nodes, wherein the probability comprises the probability, given the one or more attributes identified in the query, that a given node is to forward information to a node connected thereto via a given edge, and wherein said computing is carried out by an iterative algorithm executing on the computing device; and identifying at least one path from the query node to at least one of the one or more target nodes based on (i) the computed probability associated with each of the multiple edges in the network, (ii) the computed benefit score for each of the multiple nodes in the network, and (iii) the computed loss score for each of the multiple nodes in the network, wherein the at least one path increases reachability from the query node to the one or more target nodes in the network and decreases reachability from the query node to the non-target nodes in the network.