Fundamentals of Big Data Network Analysis for Research and Industry

6 Connectivity and Role

In network analysis, it is important to find out the structural characteristics of how groups are divided and interconnected. There are some features showing the structural characteristics of a network. This allows the determination of whether the entire system is split into many groups or overlapping exists among groups, or how the sizes of groups are distributed. For instance, if there is no overlap among groups and there is a system composed of completely separated groups, conflicts and confrontations will be severe and new innovations will be difficult to accept by all of the members. Members in identical groups share common thoughts, behave similarly, and provide an identity that coincides with the group attributes. Some methods of network analysis were developed to split up members in a group depending on the existence of a relationship. The method to divide subgroups depends on how a subgroup is defined. For example, should a subgroup have a mutually reachable channel or can a subgroup just have a unilaterally reachable channel? Or should we regard groups connected with indirect relations as an identical subgroup? Subgroups can be divided according to these standards.

6.1 Connection Analysis

6.1.1 Connectivity

Connectivity [1] analysis is used to identify the vulnerability of the network connection, and because the analysis occurs through the links between the nodes, the connectivity analysis can be approached on the basis of the node, ...