Controller-based Energy-Aware Wireless Sensor Network Routing using Quantum Algorithms

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of quantum annealing processors to improve energy-efficient routing in wireless sensor networks, demonstrating promising preliminary results for small networks.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using quantum annealing for energy-aware routing, offering a proof-of-principle that could surpass classical heuristics.

Findings

Quantum annealing finds optimal or near-optimal solutions quickly.

Preliminary results show promise for small networks.

Potential for significant improvements in network algorithm efficacy.

Abstract

Energy efficient routing in wireless sensor networks has attracted attention from researchers in both academia and industry, most recently motivated by the opportunity to use SDN (software defined network)-inspired approaches. These problems are NP-hard, with algorithms needing computation time which scales faster than polynomial in the problem size. Consequently, heuristic algorithms are used in practice, which are unable to guarantee optimally. In this short paper, we show proof-of-principle for the use of a quantum annealing processor instead of a classical processor, to find optimal or near-optimal solutions very quickly. Our preliminary results for small networks show that this approach using quantum computing has great promise and may open the door for other significant improvements in the efficacy of network algorithms.