Applied aspects of ranking algorithms for oriented weighted graphs (on the example of social network graphs)

The article deals with the applied aspects of the preliminary vertices ranking for oriented weighted graph. In this paper, the authors observed the widespread use of this technique in developing heuristic discrete optimization algorithms. The ranking problem is directly related to the problem of social networks centrality and large real world data sets but as shown in the article ranking is explicitly or implicitly used in the development of algorithms as the initial stage of obtaining a solution for solving applied problems. Examples of such ranking application are given. The examples demonstrate the increase of efficiency for solving some optimization applied problems, which are widely used in mathematical methods of optimization, decision-making not only from the theoretical development point of view but also their applications. The article describes the structure of the first phase of the computational experiment, which is associated with the procedure of obtaining test data sets. The obtained data are presented by weighted graphs that correspond to several groups of the social network Vkontakte with the number of participants in the range from 9000 to 24 thousand. It is shown that the structural characteristics of the obtained graphs differ significantly in the number of connectivity components. Characteristics of centrality (degree's sequences), as shown, have exponential distribution. The main attention is given to the analysis of three approaches to graph vertices ranking. We propose analysis and comparison of the obtained set of ranks by the nature of their distribution. The definition of convergence for graph vertex ranking algorithms is introduced and the differences of their use in considering the data of large dimension and the need to build a solution in the presence of local changes are discussed.