Distributed Graph Layout with Spark

Abstract

This paper presents a novel way to draw very large graphs, especially those too big to fit the memory of a single computer. This new method takes advantage of the recent progress in distributed computing, notably using the Apache MapReduce library called Spark. Our implementation of a force-directed graph drawing algorithm and the way to compute repulsive forces in MapReduce are exhibited. We demonstrate the horizontal scalability of this algorithm and show layouts computed on a Hadoop cluster with our method.