Layer-Centered Approach for Multigraphs Visualization

Recent advances in network science allows the modeling and analysis of complex inter-related entities. These entities often interact with each other in a number of different ways. Simple graphs fail to capture these multiple types of relationships requiring more sophisticated mathematical structures. One such structure is multigraph, where entities (or nodes) can be linked to each other through multiple edges. In this paper we describe a new method to manage multiple types of relationships existing in multigraphs. Our approach is based on the concept of pair of nodes (edges) and, in particular, we study how nodes on different layers interact which each other considering the edges they share. We propose a two level strategy that summarizes global/local multigraph features. The global view helps us to gain knowledge related to the characteristics of layers and how they interact while the local view provides an analysis of individual layers highlighting edge properties such as cluster structure. Our proposal is complementary to standard node-link diagram and it can be coupled with such techniques in order to intelligently explore multigraphs. The proposed visualization is tested on a real world case study and the outcomes point out the ability of our proposal to discover patterns present in the data.