Betweenness is a well-known centrality measure that ranks the nodes of a
network according to their participation in shortest paths. Since an exact
computation is prohibitive in large networks, several approximation algorithms
have been proposed. Besides that, recent years have seen the publication of
dynamic algorithms for efficient recomputation of betweenness in evolving
networks. In previous work we proposed the first semi-dynamic algorithms that
recompute an approximation of betweenness in connected graphs after batches of
edge insertions.
In this paper we propose the first fully-dynamic approximation algorithms
(for weighted and unweighted undirected graphs that need not to be connected)
with a provable guarantee on the maximum approximation error. The transfer to
fully-dynamic and disconnected graphs implies additional algorithmic problems
that could be of independent interest. In particular, we propose a new upper
bound on the vertex diameter for weighted undirected graphs. For both weighted
and unweighted graphs, we also propose the first fully-dynamic algorithms that
keep track of such upper bound. In addition, we extend our former algorithm for
semi-dynamic BFS to batches of both edge insertions and deletions.
Using approximation, our algorithms are the first to make in-memory
computation of betweenness in fully-dynamic networks with millions of edges
feasible. Our experiments show that they can achieve substantial speedups
compared to recomputation, up to several orders of magnitude