Resource Allocation in Quantum Networks for Distributed Quantum Computing

TL;DR

This paper explores resource allocation strategies for quantum networks supporting distributed quantum computing, emphasizing the need for specialized provisioning beyond point-to-point quantum links to enable scalable quantum computing infrastructure.

Contribution

It introduces a novel resource allocation approach tailored for quantum internet supporting distributed quantum computing, backed by comprehensive simulation analysis.

Findings

Key features of quantum network resource allocation identified

Performance issues in current provisioning strategies highlighted

Guidelines for future quantum network design proposed

Abstract

The evolution of quantum computing technologies has been advancing at a steady pace in the recent years, and the current trend suggests that it will become available at scale for commercial purposes in the near future. The acceleration can be boosted by pooling compute infrastructures to either parallelize algorithm execution or solve bigger instances that are not feasible on a single quantum computer, which requires an underlying Quantum Internet: the interconnection of quantum computers by quantum links and repeaters to exchange entangled quantum bits. However, Quantum Internet research so far has been focused on provisioning point-to-point flows only, which is suitable for (e.g.) quantum sensing and metrology, but not for distributed quantum computing. In this paper, after a primer on quantum computing and networking, we investigate the requirements and objectives of smart computing on distributed nodes from the perspective of quantum network provisioning. We then design a resource allocation strategy that is evaluated through a comprehensive simulation campaign, whose results highlight the key features and performance issues, and lead the way to further investigation in this direction.