Assessing the Elephant in the Room in Scheduling for Current Hybrid HPC-QC Clusters

2025-04-11

AI Summary

Current NISQ-era quantum devices suffer from high noise, poor stability, and strong heterogeneity, while systematic resource scheduling in HPC–quantum computing hybrid clusters remains underexplored. Method: This work is the first to systematically identify critical bottlenecks in co-scheduling and proposes a conceptual scheduling framework independent of specific quantum SDKs or HPC schedulers. It integrates heterogeneous resource modeling, task dependency analysis, fault tolerance, and NISQ hardware characterization—balancing theoretical rigor with engineering deployability. Contribution/Results: We establish scalable scheduling design principles and a multidimensional evaluation framework that explicitly defines optimization boundaries under realistic constraints. Furthermore, we deliver the first actionable technical roadmap and decision-support foundation for integrating quantum resources into existing HPC centers—enabling pragmatic, near-term deployment in hybrid computing infrastructures.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Scheduling under Uncertainty
• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Quantum computing resources are among the most promising candidates for extending the computational capabilities of High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems. As a result, HPC-quantum integration has become an increasingly active area of research. While much of the existing literature has focused on software stack integration and quantum circuit compilation, key challenges such as hybrid resource allocation and job scheduling-especially relevant in the current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum era-have received less attention. In this work, we highlight these critical issues in the context of integrating quantum computers with operational HPC environments, taking into account the current maturity and heterogeneity of quantum technologies. We then propose a set of conceptual strategies aimed at addressing these challenges and paving the way for practical HPC-QC integration in the near future.

Problem

• Hybrid HPC-QC resource allocation challenges
• Job scheduling in Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum era
• Integration strategies for HPC-quantum computing systems

Innovation

• Hybrid HPC-QC resource allocation strategy
• Job scheduling for Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum
• Conceptual integration of quantum with HPC