My goal is to solve the XOR problem using a Neural Network. I’ve read countless articles on the theory, proof, and mathematics behind a multi-layered neural network. The theory make sense (math… not so much) but I have a few simple questions regarding the evaluation and topology of a Neural Network.
I feel I am very close to solving this problem, but I am beginning to question my topology and evaluation techniques. The complexities of back propagation aside, I just want to know if my approach to evaluation is correct. With that in mind, here are my questions:
Assuming we have multiple inputs, does each respective input get its’ own node? Do we ever input both values into a single node? Does the order in which we enter this information matter?
While evaluating the graph output, does each node fire as soon as it gets a value? Or do we instead collect all the values from the above layer and then fire off once we’ve consumed all the input?
Does the order of evaluation matter? For example, if a given node in layer “b” is ready to fire – but other nodes in that same layer are still awaiting input – should the ready node fire anyway? Or should all nodes in the layer be loaded up before firing?
Should each layer be connected to all nodes in the following layer?
I’ve attached a picture which should help explain (some of) my questions.
Thank you for your time!