In many applications it is of interest to identify anomalous behavior within a dynamic interacting system. Such anomalous interactions are reflected by structural changes in the network representation of the system. We propose and investigate the use of a dynamic version of the degree corrected stochastic block model (DCSBM) as a means to model and monitor dynamic networks that undergo a significant structural change. Our model provides a means to simulate a variety of local and global changes in a time-varying network. Furthermore, one can efficiently detect such changes using the maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters that characterize the DCSBM. We assess the utility of the dynamic DCSBM on both simulated and real networks. Using a simple monitoring strategy on the DCSBM, we are able to detect significant changes in the U.S. Senate co-voting network that reflects both times of cohesion and times of polarization among Republican and Democratic members. Our analysis suggests that the dynamic DCSBM provides a realistic "ground truth" network model on which the strengths and weaknesses of any network surveillance method can be evaluated.
This model has been adopted in REF for monitoring the U.S. Senate co-voting network.
Modeling and estimating change in temporal networks via a dynamic degree corrected stochastic block model
ArXiv
ArXiv
Mathematics Computer Science Physics