A local multiresolution algorithm for detecting communities of unbalanced structures

In complex networks such as computer and information networks, social networks or biological networks a community structure is a common and important property. Community detection in complex networks has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. Community detection is the problem of finding closely related groups within a network. Modularity optimisation is a widely accepted method for community detection. It has been shown that the modularity optimisation has a resolution limit because it is unable to detect communities with sizes smaller than a certain number of vertices defined with network size. In this paper we propose a metric for describing community structures that enables community detection better than other metrics. We present a fast local expansion algorithm for community detection. The proposed algorithm provides online multiresolution community detection from a source vertex. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is efficient in both real-world and synthetic networks. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.