Optimal trust network analysis with subjective logic

Trust network analysis with subjective logic (TNA-SL) simplifies complex trust graphs into series-parallel graphs by removing the most uncertain paths to obtain a canonical graph. This simplification could in theory cause loss of information and thereby lead to sub-optimal results. This paper describes a new method for trust network analysis which is considered optimal because it does not require trust graph simplification, but instead uses edge splitting to obtain a canonical graph. The new method is compared with TNA-SL, and our simulation shows that both methods produce equal results. This indicates that TNA-SL in fact also represents an optimal method for trust network analysis and that the trust graph simplification does not affect the result.