Network motifs in computational graphs: A case study in software architecture

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Abstract
Complex networks in both nature and technology have been shown to display characteristic, small subgraphs (so-called motifs) which appear to be related to their underlying functionality. All these networks share a common trait: they manipulate information at different scales in order to perform some kind of computation. Here we analyze a large set of software class diagrams and show that several highly frequent network motifs appear to be a consequence of network heterogeneity and size, thus suggesting a somewhat less relevant role of functionality. However, by using a simple model of network growth by duplication and rewiring, it is shown the rules of graph evolution seem to be largely responsible for the observed motif distribution.