WalkingTime: Dynamic Graph Embedding Using Temporal-Topological Flows

Abstract: Increased attention has been paid over the last four years to dynamic network embedding. Existing dynamic embedding methods, however, consider the problem as limited to the evolution of a topology over a sequence of global, discrete states. We propose a novel embedding algorithm, WalkingTime, based on a fundamentally different handling of time, allowing for the local consideration of continuously occurring phenomena; while others consider global time-steps to be first-order citizens of the dynamic environment, we hold flows comprised of temporally and topologically local interactions as our primitives, without any discretization or alignment of time-related attributes being necessary. Keywords: dynamic networks , representation learning , dynamic graph embedding , time-respecting paths , temporal-topological flows , temporal random walks , temporal networks , real-attributed knowledge graphs , streaming graphs , online networks , asynchronous graphs , asynchronous networks , graph algorithms , deep learning , network analysis , datamining , network science