Modelling and Evaluating Restricted ESNs.

We investigate various methods of combining Echo State Networks (ESNs), including a method that we dub Restricted ESNs . We provide a notation for describing Restricted ESNs, and use it to benchmark a standard ESN against restricted ones. We investigate two methods to keep the weight matrix density consistent when comparing a Restricted ESN to a standard one, which we call “overall consistency” and “patch consistency”. We benchmark restricted ESNs on NARMA10 and the sunspot prediction benchmark, and find that restricted ESNs perform similarly to standard ones. We present some application scenarios in which restricted ESNs may offer advantages over standard ESNs.