Stochastic graph as a model for social networks

Social networks are usually modeled and represented as deterministic graphs with a set of nodes as users and edges as connection between users of networks. Due to the uncertain and dynamic nature of user behavior and human activities in social networks, their structural and behavioral parameters are time varying parameters and for this reason using deterministic graphs for modeling and analysis of behavior of users may not be appropriate. In this paper, we propose that stochastic graphs, in which weights associated with edges are random variables, may be a better candidate as a graph model for social network analysis. Thus, we first propose generalization of some network measures for stochastic graphs and then propose six learning automata based algorithms for calculating these measures under the situation that the probability distribution functions of the edge weights of the graph are unknown. Simulations on different synthetic stochastic graphs for calculating the network measures using the proposed algorithms show that in order to obtain good estimates for the network measures, the required number of samples taken from edges of the graph is significantly lower than that of standard sampling method aims to analysis of human behavior in online social networks. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.