A MapReduce-based approach for finding inexact patterns in large graphs

Abstract

Finding patterns in graphs is a fundamental problem in graph theory, and also a practical challenge during the analysis of big data sets. Inexact patterns may correspond to a set of possible exact graphs. Their use is important in many fields where pattern matching is applied (e.g. mining in social networks or criminal investigations). Based on previous work, this paper introduces a pattern specification language with special language features to express inexact patterns. We also show a MapReduce approach-based algorithm that is able to find matches. Our methods make it possible to define inexact patterns and to find the exact matches in large graphs efficiently.