# Community-Aware Temporal Walks: Parameter-Free Representation Learning on Continuous-Time Dynamic Graphs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.11880 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.11880/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 36 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [Efficient Estimation of Word Representations in Vector Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3781/) (2013)
- [Learning Phrase Representations using RNN Encoder-Decoder for Statistical Machine Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1406.1078/) (2014)
- [Neural Ordinary Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.07366/) (2018)
- [Distributed Representations of Words and Phrases and their Compositionality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1310.4546/) (2013)
- [node2vec: Scalable Feature Learning for Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.00653/) (2016)
- [DeepWalk: Online Learning of Social Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1403.6652/) (2014)
- [LINE: Large-scale Information Network Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03578/) (2015)
- [Recurrent Neural Networks for Multivariate Time Series with Missing Values](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.01865/) (2016)
- [Temporal Graph Networks for Deep Learning on Dynamic Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10637/) (2020)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Temporal Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.07962/) (2020)
- [Predicting Dynamic Embedding Trajectory in Temporal Interaction Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.01207/) (2019)
- [EvolveGCN: Evolving Graph Convolutional Networks for Dynamic Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.10191/) (2019)
- [KGAT: Knowledge Graph Attention Network for Recommendation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.07854/) (2019)
- [A Review of Relational Machine Learning for Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.00759/) (2015)
- [Representation Learning for Dynamic Graphs: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11485/) (2019)
- [A Critical Review of Recurrent Neural Networks for Sequence Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.00019/) (2015)
- [struc2vec: Learning Node Representations from Structural Identity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.03165/) (2017)
- [Network Embedding as Matrix Factorization: Unifying DeepWalk, LINE, PTE, and node2vec](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.02971/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning in Temporal Networks via Causal Anonymous Walks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05974/) (2021)
- [Towards Better Dynamic Graph Learning: New Architecture and Unified Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13047/) (2023)
- [ROLAND: Graph Learning Framework for Dynamic Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.07239/) (2022)
- [Continuous Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.00967/) (2019)
- [Learning Tree-based Deep Model for Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.02294/) (2018)
- [Neural Spatio-Temporal Point Processes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04583/) (2020)
- [dyngraph2vec: Capturing Network Dynamics using Dynamic Graph Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.02657/) (2018)
- [Multivariate Time Series Forecasting with Dynamic Graph Neural ODEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.08408/) (2022)
- [Provably expressive temporal graph networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.15059/) (2022)
- [Neighborhood-aware Scalable Temporal Network Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.01084/) (2022)
- [Community Detection in Networks with Node Attributes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1401.7267/) (2014)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Dynamic graph representation learning plays a crucial role in understanding evolving behaviors. However, existing methods often struggle with flexibility, adaptability, and the preservation of temporal and structural dynamics. To address these issues, we propose Community-aware Temporal Walks (CTWalks), a novel framework for representation learning on continuous-time dynamic graphs. CTWalks integrates three key components: a community-based parameter-free temporal walk sampling mechanism, an anonymization strategy enriched with community labels, and an encoding process that leverages continuous temporal dynamics modeled via ordinary differential equations (ODEs). This design enables precise modeling of both intra- and inter-community interactions, offering a fine-grained representation of evolving temporal patterns in continuous-time dynamic graphs. CTWalks theoretically overcomes locality bias in walks and establishes its connection to matrix factorization. Experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that CTWalks outperforms established methods in temporal link prediction tasks, achieving higher accuracy while maintaining robustness.