Hybrid Classical--Quantum Optimization of Wireless Routing Using QAOA and Quantum Walks
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.01250 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 1 Apr 2026] Title:Hybrid Classical--Quantum Optimization of Wireless Routing Using QAOA and Quantum Walks Authors:Eric Howard, Hardique Dasore, Hom Nath Dhungana, Radhika Kuttala, Samuel Murphy, Emma Soo, Shah Haque View a PDF of the paper titled Hybrid Classical--Quantum Optimization of Wireless Routing Using QAOA and Quantum Walks, by Eric Howard and 6 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Routing in wireless communication networks is shaped by mobility, interference, congestion, and competing service requirements, making route selection a high-dimensional constrained optimization problem rather than a simple shortest-path task. This paper investigates the use of hybrid classical--quantum methods for wireless routing, focusing on the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and quantum walks as candidate mechanisms for exploring complex routing spaces. The paper examines how wireless routing can be expressed as a constrained graph optimization problem in which routing objectives, flow constraints, connectivity requirements, and interference effects are mapped into quantum-compatible Hamiltonian representations. It then discusses how these approaches can be integrated into a hybrid architecture in which classical systems perform network monitoring, graph construction, pre-processing, and deployment, while quantum subroutines are used for selected optimization components. The analysis shows that the potential value of quantum routing lies primarily in the treatment of difficult combinatorial subproblems rather than end-to-end replacement of classical routing frameworks. The paper also highlights practical limitations arising from state preparation, constraint encoding, oracle construction, hardware noise, limited qubit resources, and hybrid execution overhead. It is argued that any meaningful near-term advantage will depend on careful problem decomposition, compact encoding, and tight classical--quantum integration. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) Cite as: arXiv:2604.01250 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2604.01250v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.01250 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Eric M Howard PhD [view email] [v1] Wed, 1 Apr 2026 01:48:57 UTC (4,238 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Hybrid Classical--Quantum Optimization of Wireless Routing Using QAOA and Quantum Walks, by Eric Howard and 6 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: cs cs.NI References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)