Hnsw graph. Think of it as a digital map of a road network.
Hnsw graph The Hierarchical navigable small world (HNSW) algorithm is a graph-based approximate nearest neighbor search technique used in many vector databases. Jun 16, 2023 · Hierarchical Navigable Small World (HNSW) is a state-of-the-art algorithm used for an approximate search of nearest neighbours. Mar 2, 2024 · HNSW indexes use a hierarchical layering of data. . Mar 30, 2016 · We present a new approach for the approximate K-nearest neighbor search based on navigable small world graphs with controllable hierarchy (Hierarchical NSW, HNSW). Zoomed out, you see the major roads that connect cities and towns. The top layer is the most sparse, and each layer gets more dense with "Hierarchical Navigable Small World" (HNSW): an intriguing mouthful, designating a dense bouquet of concepts developed in the last 70 years in sociology, graph theory, and algorithmic science. Imagine multiple layers of graphs stacked on top of each other. [1] Nearest neighbor search without an index involves computing the distance from the query to each point in the database, which for large datasets is computationally prohibitive. HNSW is a hugely popular technology that time and time again produces state-of-the-art performance with super fast search speeds and fantastic recall. Hierarchical Navigable Small World (HNSW) graphs are among the top-performing indexes for vector similarity search. May 7, 2025 · In a nutshell, HNSW creates a multi-layered graph structure where each layer is a simplified, navigable network. The proposed solution is fully graph-based, without any need for additional search structures, which are typically used at the coarse search stage of the most proximity graph techniques. Under the hood, HNSW constructs optimized graph structures making it very different from other approaches that were discussed in previous parts of this article series. Think of it as a digital map of a road network. jgujuemnvjzupxfybtsthrxnzkshgajpkxlyjckhtfcqzdstutgzjdkzg