Efficient Graph Condensation via Gaussian Process

Lin Wang, Qing Li

Abstract: Graph condensation reduces the size of large graphs while preserving performance, addressing the scalability challenges of Graph Neural Networks caused by computational inefficiencies on large datasets. Existing methods often rely on bi-level optimization, requiring extensive GNN training and limiting their scalability. To tackle these issues, we propose Graph Condensation via Gaussian Process (GCGP), a novel and efficient framework that optimizes a compact, high-fidelity condensed graph, enabling effective training of various GNNs with reduced computational cost. GCGP utilizes a Gaussian Process (GP), with the condensed graph serving as observations, to estimate the posterior distribution of predictions. This approach eliminates the need for the iterative and resource-intensive training typically required by GNNs. To enhance the capability of the GCGP in capturing dependencies between function values, we derive a specialized covariance function that incorporates structural information. This covariance function broadens the receptive field of input nodes by local neighborhood aggregation, thereby facilitating the representation of intricate dependencies within the nodes. To address the challenge of optimizing binary structural information in condensed graphs, Concrete random variables are utilized to approximate the binary adjacency matrix in a continuous counterpart. This relaxation process allows the adjacency matrix to be represented in a differentiable form, enabling the application of gradient-based optimization techniques to discrete graph structures. Experimental results show that the proposed GCGP method efficiently condenses large-scale graph data while preserving predictive performance, addressing the scalability and efficiency challenges.

External IDs:dblp:journals/tkde/WangL26