Quasi-Isometric Graph Simplifications

Quasi-isometries are mappings on graphs, with distance-distortions parameterized by a multiplicative factor and an additive constant. The distance-distortions of quasi-isometries are in a general form that captures a wide range of distance-approximating graph simplifications. This paper introduces quasi-isometries into the field of graph simplifications, which is becoming increasingly important as large-scale graphs gain more and more prevalence. We discuss some general goals of graph simplification under the framework of quasi-isometries, and investigate several constructions of quasi-isometric graph simplifications, namely one based on maximal independent sets and one based on grouping vertices. For the latter construction, we prove that it preserves the centers and medians of trees.