Link Analysis Phases and Tools

Conceptually, you can divide the Link Analysis technique into five phases. Each phase of Link Analysis consists of steps that uses different tools. Refer to the high-level steps of Phases One through Three and the tools used.

These phases allow you to follow these steps:

  1. Specify the logic to find specific types of links between specific types of nodes and indicating which of these types to combine into networks (refer to section Phase One-Building the Logic to Find Links and Combine into Networks, for more information).

    Optional: Specify the interesting characteristics of the resulting networks and the logic to derive these characteristics (refer to section Phase Two-Defining Network Characteristics, for more information).

  2. Create a Link Analysis Job to detect networks (refer to section Phase Three- Creating the Link Analysis Job, for more information).
  3. Specify patterns to evaluate networks (refer to section Phase Four-Specifying Scenario Patterns or Rule Patterns to Generate Matches on Interesting Networks, for more information).
  4. Create a Sequence Matcher or Rule Matcher job to execute the patterns and generate matches (refer to section Phase Five-Creating a Sequence Matcher or Rule Matcher Job to Evaluate Networks and Generate Matches, for more information).

    (Refer to section Link Analysis Procedures within the Scenario Manager, for instructions on the specific steps of a phase.)

  • Within these phases, use the Dataset Editor to create the following:
    • Source Link dataset that specifies the logic to detect links.
    • Network Characteristics dataset to capture the characteristics that distinguish the networks. (Creating a Network Characteristics dataset is optional, however, it is dependent upon Input Characteristic dataset).
    • Input Characteristic datasets that specify the logic to populate the characteristics captured in the Network Characteristics dataset. (Creating an Input Characteristic dataset is optional, however, it is dependent upon a Network Characteristics dataset).
  • Use the Network Definition Editor to create a network definition that maps together:
    • One or more Source Link datasets that contain the links for construction of networks.
    • Network Characteristics dataset that captures interesting characteristics for the resulting networks.
    • Input Characteristic dataset that contains the logic to derive each characteristic (that is, column) in the Network Characteristics dataset.
  • Use the Link Analysis Job Editor to create a job that executes a Network Definition to detect and characterize networks.
  • Use the Sequence Pattern or Rule Pattern Editors to create sequence patterns or rule patterns that specify the logic and evaluate the characteristics of a network to detect networks that exhibit a behavior of interest.
  • Use the Sequence Matcher or Rule Matcher Job Editors to create jobs that execute the sequence patterns or rule patterns to generate matches focused on the networks that exhibit the behavior of interest.

Figure 7-1 Link Analysis Steps


Link Analysis Steps