The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs

Friend link prediction is an important issue in recommendation systems and social network analysis. In Location-Based Social Networks (LBSNs), predicting potential friend relationships faces significant challenges due to the diversity of user behaviors, along with the high dimensionality, sparsity,...

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Main Authors: Ziteng Yang, Boyu Li, Yong Wang, Aoxue Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-04-01
Series:Applied Sciences
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/8/4585
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author Ziteng Yang
Boyu Li
Yong Wang
Aoxue Liu
author_facet Ziteng Yang
Boyu Li
Yong Wang
Aoxue Liu
author_sort Ziteng Yang
collection DOAJ
description Friend link prediction is an important issue in recommendation systems and social network analysis. In Location-Based Social Networks (LBSNs), predicting potential friend relationships faces significant challenges due to the diversity of user behaviors, along with the high dimensionality, sparsity, and complex noise in the data. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network (GEVEHGAN) model based on Lite Gate Recurrent Unit (Lite-GRU) embedding and Variational Autoencoder (VAE) enhancement. The model constructs a heterogeneous graph with two types of nodes and three types of edges; combines Skip-Gram and Lite-GRU to learn Point of Interest (POI) and user node embeddings; introduces VAE for dimensionality reduction and denoising of the embeddings; and employs edge-level attention mechanisms to enhance information propagation and feature aggregation. Experiments are conducted on the publicly available Foursquare dataset. The results show that the GEVEHGAN model outperforms other comparative models in evaluation metrics such as AUC, AP, and Top@K accuracy, demonstrating its superior performance in the friend link prediction task.
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spelling doaj-art-2eb989966ab043eb9d25f61793e86c7c2025-08-20T02:17:25ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172025-04-01158458510.3390/app15084585The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNsZiteng Yang0Boyu Li1Yong Wang2Aoxue Liu3School of Computer Science, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430078, ChinaSchool of Computer Science, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430078, ChinaSchool of Computer Science, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430078, ChinaSchool of Computer Science, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430078, ChinaFriend link prediction is an important issue in recommendation systems and social network analysis. In Location-Based Social Networks (LBSNs), predicting potential friend relationships faces significant challenges due to the diversity of user behaviors, along with the high dimensionality, sparsity, and complex noise in the data. To address these issues, this paper proposes a Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network (GEVEHGAN) model based on Lite Gate Recurrent Unit (Lite-GRU) embedding and Variational Autoencoder (VAE) enhancement. The model constructs a heterogeneous graph with two types of nodes and three types of edges; combines Skip-Gram and Lite-GRU to learn Point of Interest (POI) and user node embeddings; introduces VAE for dimensionality reduction and denoising of the embeddings; and employs edge-level attention mechanisms to enhance information propagation and feature aggregation. Experiments are conducted on the publicly available Foursquare dataset. The results show that the GEVEHGAN model outperforms other comparative models in evaluation metrics such as AUC, AP, and Top@K accuracy, demonstrating its superior performance in the friend link prediction task.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/8/4585friend link predictiongated recurrent unitvariational autoencoderheterogeneous graphattention mechanism
spellingShingle Ziteng Yang
Boyu Li
Yong Wang
Aoxue Liu
The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
Applied Sciences
friend link prediction
gated recurrent unit
variational autoencoder
heterogeneous graph
attention mechanism
title The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
title_full The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
title_fullStr The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
title_full_unstemmed The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
title_short The Application of Lite-GRU Embedding and VAE-Augmented Heterogeneous Graph Attention Network in Friend Link Prediction for LBSNs
title_sort application of lite gru embedding and vae augmented heterogeneous graph attention network in friend link prediction for lbsns
topic friend link prediction
gated recurrent unit
variational autoencoder
heterogeneous graph
attention mechanism
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/15/8/4585
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