ReNF: Rethinking the Design Space of Neural Long-Term Time Series Forecasters

Abstract: Neural Forecasters (NFs) are a cornerstone of Long-term Time Series Forecasting (LTSF). However, progress has been hampered by an overemphasis on architectural complexity at the expense of fundamental forecasting principles. In this work, we return to first principles to redesign the LTSF paradigm. We begin by introducing a Multiple Neural Forecasting Theorem that provides a theoretical basis for our approach. We propose Boosted Direct Output (BDO), a novel forecasting strategy that synergistically combines the advantages of both Auto-Regressive (AR) and Direct Output (DO). In addition, we stabilize the learning process by smoothly tracking the model's parameters. Extensive experiments show that these principled improvements enable a simple MLP to achieve state-of-the-art performance, outperforming recent, complex models in nearly all cases, without any specific considerations in the area. Finally, we empirically verify our theorem, establishing a dynamic performance bound and identifying promising directions for future research. The code for review is available at: .