Q-xApp: A Quantum-Enabled Resource Management Module for Virtualized RAN Architectures

This paper explores the modular integration of quantum computing within virtualized radio access network (RAN) architectures. Industrial wireless networks present challenges in managing network resources due to their time-critical and large-scale characteristics, distinct from those of general networks. Recently, open RAN (O-RAN) has emerged as a virtualized networking framework that supports customized RAN utilization through the modular assembly of functional units. This structure allows the computational acceleration of quantum computing to be leveraged for industrial networks as independent softwarized modules. In this study, a dedicated quantum module is designed as near-real time resource management component in O-RAN, referred to as quantum-based xApp (Q-xApp). To establish quantum-based processes within Q-xApps, a quantum representation of network configurations is introduced, along with a quantum algorithm for network resource management that considers continuous utility and constraint considerations. Lastly, the feasibility of the proposed Q-xApp is demonstrated through simulation-based evaluations.