Training Graph Neural Networks by Graphon Estimation

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2109.01918
• Publication Date: 2021-12-15
• Authors: Hu, Ziqing; Fang, Yihao; Lin, Lizhen
• Keywords: Social and Information Networks (cs.SI); FOS: Computer and information sciences; Computer Science - Machine Learning; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; Computer Science - Social and Information Networks; 02 engineering and technology; Machine Learning (cs.LG)

In this work, we propose to train a graph neural network via resampling from a graphon estimate obtained from the underlying network data. More specifically, the graphon or the link probability matrix of the underlying network is first obtained from which a new network will be resampled and used during the training process at each layer. Due to the uncertainty induced from the resampling, it helps mitigate the well-known issue of over-smoothing in a graph neural network (GNN) model. Our framework is general, computationally efficient, and conceptually simple. Another appealing feature of our method is that it requires minimal additional tuning during the training process. Extensive numerical results show that our approach is competitive with and in many cases outperform the other over-smoothing reducing GNN training methods.