# EDN: A Novel Edge-Dependent Noise Model for Graph Data

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11368 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.11368/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [How Powerful are Graph Neural Networks?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.00826/) (2018)
- [Graph Neural Networks: A Review of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08434/) (2018)
- [Pitfalls of Graph Neural Network Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.05868/) (2018)
- [Revisiting Semi-Supervised Learning with Graph Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08861/) (2016)
- [DropEdge: Towards Deep Graph Convolutional Networks on Node Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10903/) (2019)
- [Masked Label Prediction: Unified Message Passing Model for Semi-Supervised Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.03509/) (2020)
- [NRGNN: Learning a Label Noise-Resistant Graph Neural Network on Sparsely and Noisily Labeled Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.04714/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Graph Neural Networks in Real world: Imbalance, Noise, Privacy and OOD Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04468/) (2024)
- [A Unified Framework for Data Poisoning Attack to Graph-based Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.14147/) (2019)
- [Learning Graph Neural Networks with Noisy Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01591/) (2019)
- [Robust Training of Graph Neural Networks via Noise Governance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.06614/) (2022)
- [Learning on Graphs under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08194/) (2023)
- [Noise-robust Graph Learning by Estimating and Leveraging Pairwise Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.07451/) (2021)
- [NoisyGL: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Graph Neural Networks under Label Noise](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04299/) (2024)
- [ADEdgeDrop: Adversarial Edge Dropping for Robust Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09171/) (2024)
- [DeGLIF for Label Noise Robust Node Classification using GNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00244/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

An important structural feature of a graph is its set of edges, as it captures the relationships among the nodes (the graph's topology). Existing node label noise models like Symmetric Label Noise (SLN) and Class Conditional Noise (CCN) disregard this important node relationship in graph data; and the Edge-Dependent Noise (EDN) model addresses this limitation. EDN posits that in real-world scenarios, label noise may be influenced by the connections between nodes. We explore three variants of EDN. A crucial notion that relates nodes and edges in a graph is the degree of a node; we show that in all three variants, the probability of a node's label corruption is dependent on its degree. Additionally, we compare the dependence of these probabilities on node degree across different variants. We performed experiments on popular graph datasets using 5 different GNN architectures and 8 noise robust algorithms for graph data. The results demonstrate that 2 variants of EDN lead to greater performance degradation in both Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) and existing noise-robust algorithms, as compared to traditional node label noise models. We statistically verify this by posing a suitable hypothesis-testing problem. This emphasizes the importance of incorporating EDN when evaluating noise robust algorithms for graphs, to enhance the reliability of graph-based learning in noisy environments.