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

Quantum computers could offer substantial energy-saving advantages over conventional compute servers, particularly in the context of 5G signal processing. This paper explores the potential of Quantum Annealing (QA) to implement Forward Error Correction (FEC) and introduces Qu4Fec, an innovative solution for decoding Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes. Our findings demonstrate that Qu4Fec improves state-of-the-art approaches in terms of Block Error Rate (BLER). However, our experiments reveal that the current leading Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) design is suboptimal for the FEC problem formulation. We identify key challenges, including qubit chain length, scaling, and quantization, and propose Quantum architectures to address these limitations.