Motifs-based link prediction for heterogeneous multilayer networks

Link prediction has a wide range of applications in the study of complex networks, and the current research on link prediction based on single-layer networks has achieved fruitful results, while link prediction methods for multilayer networks have to be further developed. Existing research on link prediction for multilayer networks mainly focuses on multiplexed networks with homogeneous nodes and heterogeneous edges, while there are relatively few studies on general multilayer networks with heterogeneous nodes and edges. In this context, this paper proposes a method for heterogeneous multilayer networks based on motifs for link prediction. The method considers not only the effect of heterogeneity of edges on network links but also the effect of heterogeneous and homogeneous nodes on the existence of links between nodes. In addition, we use the role function of nodes to measure the contribution of nodes to form the motifs with links in different layers of the network, thus enabling the prediction of intra- and inter-layer links on heterogeneous multilayer networks. Finally, we apply the method to several empirical networks and find that our method has better link prediction performance than several other link prediction methods on multilayer networks.