A survey of pattern mining in dynamic graphs

Graph data is found in numerous domains such as for the analysis of social networks, sensor networks, bioinformatics, industrial systems, and chemistry. Analyzing graphs to identify useful and interesting patterns is an important research area. It helps understanding graphs, and hence support decision making. Since two decades, many graph mining algorithms have been proposed to identify patterns such as frequent subgraphs, paths, cliques, and trees. But most of them assume that graphs are static. This simplifying assumption makes it easy to design algorithms but discard information about how graphs evolve. This article provides a detailed survey of techniques for mining interesting patterns in dynamic graphs, which can serve both as an introduction and as a guide to recent advances and opportunities in this research area. The main tasks related to mining patterns in dynamic graphs are reviewed such as discovering frequent subgraphs, evolution rules, motifs, subgraph sequences, recurrent and triggering patterns, and trend sequences. In addition, an overview of strategies and approaches to solve dynamic graph mining problems is presented, and their advantages and limitations are highlighted. Various extensions are also discussed such as to discover patterns in data streams and big data. Finally, the article mentions several research opportunities. This article is categorized under: Algorithmic Development > Spatial and Temporal Data Mining Algorithmic Development > Association Rules