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Network Analysis

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Haajrah Khatri
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Network Analysis

Uploaded by

Haajrah Khatri
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Haajrah Noor Khatri Lab 2 2024F-BAIT-002

Network Analysis
Contents
Introduction.............................................................................................................................................1

Network Analysis and the Different Systems..........................................................................................2

History of network analysis.....................................................................................................................2

Why Use Network analysis.....................................................................................................................2

Types of Network Analysis......................................................................................................................3

How to Analyze the Network...................................................................................................................4

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................................4

Bibliography................................................................................................................................................4

Introduction
A network is a collection of different units that can communicate and exchange information with
one another and in simple words a collection of points joined together by a line (Newman, 2010).
Graph theory is the area of that studies graphs which is the abstract language of networks. The
points are referred to as vertices or nodes while the lines are called the edges. The nodes are the
objects to be analyzed while the edges are the relationship between the objects. By turning the
networks int such graphs it easier to measure different kinds of indicators that represents
information about relationships that exist within a certain system. The word network can be used
to refer to many things in technology, social or even biological systems.
Haajrah Noor Khatri Lab 2 2024F-BAIT-002

Network Analysis and the Different Systems


Network analysis is a technique used in studying the relationship
between nodes in a network, the nodes themselves and
understanding how the network functions as a whole through
connectivity, flow, direction or path. It can be used for many
different systems such as:

 Social network which determines the spread of knowledge, behavior and resources
through professional, friendship and family ties,
 Cellular network which are the interactions between genes and proteins in the biological
system,
 Communication network,
 The power grid which supplies energy to all modern technology through a network of
generators and transmission lines,
 Transportation Network,
 Neural network that connects our neurons so our brain can function and such.

History of network analysis


The study or interest in networks date back to the release of two paper, in 1959 and 1973, on
random networks in graph theory. While the study of different networks has a long history, with
its roots in graph theory and sociology, the proper analysis only began during the first decade of
the 21st century. This is due to the fact that in the past we lacked tools to map these networks,
collect and store the information. However, after the internet revolution this was possible in a
fast and effective way to collect enough data to make real networks.

Why Use Network analysis


The method of network analysis makes it possible to understand the structure and function of
complex systems allowing researchers to use the data collected. A network analysis could be
done to find out many things in a network or system. Depending on the researcher’s topic of
interest it could be used to identify key influencers to the system, understand the flow of
information through a network, define characteristics of a group of used, predict outcomes,
Haajrah Noor Khatri Lab 2 2024F-BAIT-002

identifying problems in the system or even analyzing the overall structure of the network. All
these can also help in increasing the overall functionality of the network.

Types of Network Analysis


The main way to classify types of networks is by the way their nodes are arranged which is
called topology (Pickel). There are 7 types within this:

1. Lines where every node has no more than two connections,


2. Rings in which each and every node has two connections and the “first” and “last” nodes
are connected to each other forming a circle,
3. Mesh where every node is also connected to more than one
node,
4. Fully connected networks are when every node is connected
to every other node,
5. Stars are structures where two or more nodes are directly
connected to a central node,
6. Buses are structures where every path from one node to another passes through a central
path,
7. Tree topologies are when nodes are structured from a root node and arranged into edges.

Other types of network analysis are centrality analysis which looks at how central or important a
node is within a network, community detection which aims to identify certain groups within an
organization, influence analysis which focuses on how the actions of one or more node can affect
other nodes in the system, dynamic network which looks at how networks change overtime and
resilience analysis which looks at the ability of a network to withstand failures and ow it recovers
from them.

There are several different measures of centrality, including degree centrality (the number of
connections a node has), betweenness centrality (the number of shortest paths that pass through a
node), and eigenvector centrality (the importance of a node based on the importance of its
neighbors).

In social network analysis there are two more types of social networks. One is ego network
analysis which finds the relationship among people focusing on one node and its direct
Haajrah Noor Khatri Lab 2 2024F-BAIT-002

connections. The other is whole or complete network that captures a broader picture composing
of an entire organization or system.

How to Analyze the Network


Depending on what you want analyze within the system the approach defers but overall, in any
analysis you first need to collect data, then organize it fit for your purpose, followed by
visualizing it to understand the overall structure and identify trends. After this use statistical
techniques to analyze the data and end it by interpreting the data as well as drawing a conclusion.
Many available tools can be used in network analysis such as Gephi, NetworkX, Pajek,
Cytiscape, Node Xl, igraph and such which are all used for analyzing and visualizing complex
networks using algorithms, centrality measures, community detection, filtering and such.

Conclusion
Network analysis is a very important method as it is part of our everyday life a lot from our
transport route, the ads that come up on your page to our organization’s way of teaching. It turns
complicated systems into graphs we can understand showing the relation between things.

Bibliography
Mengsay Leom, 2021, What is Network Analysis?

Richard P. Smiraglia, 2015, Domain Analysis for Knowledge Organization

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, 2015, Network Science

Mark Newman, 2010, Networks: An Introduction

Great Learning Editorial Team, 2022, What is Network Analysis

Aishwaryasum, 2022, Types of Social Network Analysis


Haajrah Noor Khatri Lab 2 2024F-BAIT-002

Nicholas Martio, Paul Pickel, Geomatics for Environmental Management

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