01804nas a2200157   4500008003900000245005300039210005300092300001200145520129700157100002501454700002001479700002101499700001901520700002001539856008701559       2011                          d00aFoundations of Multidimensional Network Analysis0 aFoundations of Multidimensional Network Analysis  a485-4893 aComplex networks have been receiving increasing attention by the scientific community, thanks also to the increasing availability of real-world network data. In the last years, the multidimensional nature of many real world networks has been pointed out, i.e. many networks containing multiple connections between any pair of nodes have been analyzed. Despite the importance of analyzing this kind of networks was recognized by previous works, a complete framework for multidimensional network analysis is still missing. Such a framework would enable the analysts to study different phenomena, that can be either the generalization to the multidimensional setting of what happens inmonodimensional network, or a new class of phenomena induced by the additional degree of complexity that multidimensionality provides in real networks. The aim of this paper is then to give the basis for multidimensional network analysis: we develop a solid repertoire of basic concepts and analytical measures, which takes into account the general structure of multidimensional networks. We tested our framework on a real world multidimensional network, showing the validity and the meaningfulness of the measures introduced, that are able to extract important, nonrandom, information about complex phenomena.1 aBerlingerio, Michele1 aCoscia, Michele1 aGiannotti, Fosca1 aMonreale, Anna1 aPedreschi, Dino  uhttps://kdd.isti.cnr.it/publications/foundations-multidimensional-network-analysis