Alignment and Comparison of Directed Networks via Transition Couplings of Random Walks

We introduce and analyze NetOTC, a procedure for the comparison and soft alignment of weighted networks. Given two networks and a cost function relating their vertices, NetOTC finds an appropriate coupling of their associated random walks having minimum expected cost. The minimizing cost provides a numerical measure of the difference between the networks, while the optimal transport plan itself provides interpretable, probabilistic alignments of the vertices and edges of the two networks. The cost function employed can be based, for example, on vertex degrees, externally defined features, or Euclidean embeddings. Coupling of the full random walks, rather than their stationary distributions, ensures that NetOTC captures local and global information about the given networks. NetOTC applies to networks of different size and structure, and does not the require specification of free parameters. NetOTC respects edges, in the sense that vertex pairs in the given networks are aligned with positive probability only if they are adjacent in the given networks. We investigate a number of theoretical properties of NetOTC that support its use, including metric properties of the minimizing cost and its connection with short- and long-run average cost. In addition, we introduce a new notion of factor for weighted networks, and establish a close connection between factors and NetOTC. Complementing the theory, we present simulations and numerical experiments showing that NetOTC is competitive with, and sometimes superior to, other optimal transport-based network comparison methods in the literature. In particular, NetOTC shows promise in identifying isomorphic networks using a local (degree-based) cost function.