Quantum Computing in the RAN with Qu4Fec: Closing Gaps Towards Quantum-based FEC Processors

Abstract

In mobile communication systems, the increasing densification of radio access networks is creating unprecedented computational stress for baseband processing, threatening the industry’s sustainability, and new computing paradigms are urgently needed to improve the efficiency of wireless processors. Quantum computing promises to revolutionize many computing-intensive tasks across diverse fields and therefore may be the key to realizing ultra-dense next-generation mobile systems that remain economically and environmentally viable. This paper investigates the potential of Quantum computing to accelerate Forward Error Correction (FEC), the most compute-heavy component of wireless processors. We first propose Qu4Fec, a novel solution for decoding Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes on Quantum Processing Units (QPUs), which we show to outperform state-of-the-art approaches, by reducing the Block Error Rate (BLER) by nearly an order of magnitude in simulation. We then implement Qu4Fec on a real-world QPU platform to study its practical viability and performance. Our experiments reveal that current cutting-edge QPU architectures curb the capabilities of FEC and expose the underlying factors, including long qubit chains, scaling, and quantization. Based on these insights, we suggest original blueprints for future QPUs that can better support Quantum-based wireless processors. Overall, this paper provides a reliable reality check for the feasibility of wireless processing on Quantum annealers: as QPUs start to be considered part of a possible 6G landscape, our work may open new research paths towards the design of FEC methods for Quantum-powered wireless processors.