Graphons: A Nonparametric Method to Model, Estimate, and Design Algorithms for Massive Networks

Understand

Many social and economic systems are naturally represented as networks, from off-line and on-line social networks, to bipartite networks, like Netflix and Amazon, between consumers and products.

• Graphons, developed as limits of graphs, form a natural, nonparametric method to describe and estimate large networks like Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Here we describe the development of the theory of graphons, for both dense and sparse networks, over the last decade.
• We also review theorems showing that we can consistently estimate graphons from massive networks in a wide variety of models.