AntNetAlign: A software package for network alignment

In this paper we introduce AntNetAlign, an open-source tool (written in C++) that implements an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for solving the Network Alignment (NA) problem, a well-known hard optimization problem with important applications in different areas, such as biology or social networks. Spe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rodríguez i Corominas, Guillem, Blesa Aguilera, Maria Josep|||0000-0001-8246-9926, Blum, Christian
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/386762
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/386762
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.simpa.2023.100476
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Combinatorial optimization
Ant algorithms
Network alignment
Open source software
Optimization
Ant colony optimization
Optimització combinatòria
Algorismes de les colònies de formigues
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Informàtica teòrica::Algorísmica i teoria de la complexitat
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Informàtica::Intel·ligència artificial
Descripción
Sumario:In this paper we introduce AntNetAlign, an open-source tool (written in C++) that implements an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) for solving the Network Alignment (NA) problem, a well-known hard optimization problem with important applications in different areas, such as biology or social networks. Specifically, given two input networks, the tool finds an alignment between them (i.e., a mapping between the respective nodes) that optimizes one out of the three main topological measures. Additionally, it can make use of user-defined pairwise similarities between nodes during its construction phase, allowing for the use of more application-dependent information in order to increase its performance. Results show that AntNetAlign outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms in two out of the three aforementioned topological scores within a reasonable amount of time, and is able to achieve competitive results in the context of larger instances (Rodríguez Corominas et al., 2023). Furthermore, a new version of the algorithm, which makes use of Negative Learning, was able to further improve these results, specially in the EC score (Corominas et al., 2022).