Research Directions for Big Data Graph Analytics

In the era of big data, interest in analysis and extraction of information from large data graphs is increasing rapidly. This paper examines the field of graph analytics from somewhat of a query processing point of view. Whether it be determination of shortest paths or finding patterns in a data graph matching a query graph, the issue is to find interesting characteristics or information content from graphs. Many of the associated problems can be abstracted to problems on paths or problems on patterns. Unfortunately, seemingly simple problems, such as finding patterns in a data graph matching a query graph are surprisingly difficult. In addition, the iterative nature of algorithms in this field makes the simple MapReduce style of parallel and distributed processing less effective. Still, the need to provide answers even for very large graphs is driving the research. Progress, trends and directions for future research are presented.