High Performance Computing (HPC) centers are expanding to encompass resources that extend beyond traditional computing. By extending resources to quantum computing, hybrid quantum-classical workflows tackle complex optimization problems that have never before been possible. However, integrating quantum processing units (QPUs) into cloud-native and scientific workload managers presents a unique orchestration challenge: remote quantum devices introduce a second, external queue -- a two-queue problem -- alongside the queue owned by the traditional scheduler. In this work we present Fluence, a Kubernetes scheduler plugin backed by the Fluxion graph-based scheduler, that enables informed, gang-scheduled placement for quantum-classical workloads and custom resources. We evaluate Fluence across three scenarios using AWS Braket simulators and real QPUs. First, under node contention, Fluence's atomic gang placement all but eliminates the wasted node-time that a default scheduler accrues by partially placing gangs. Second, we introduce a synchronization primitive for the two-queue problem in which a single producer submits a shared quantum task while consumers remain scheduling-gated, reducing worker idle time by roughly 5x under short device queues and by orders of magnitude when a real device queue stretched to hours. Third, cost- and queue-aware backend selection pins the cheapest or shortest-queue device satisfying a workload, cutting mean per-run cost by roughly 70x and time-to-result from hours to under a minute. Together, these results show that quantum-awareness can be added to a cloud-native scheduler without modifying user containers.
High Performance Computing (HPC) centers are expanding to encompass resources that extend beyond traditional computing. By extending resources to quantum computing, hybrid quantum-classical workflows tackle complex optimization problems that have never before been possible. However, integrating quantum processing units (QPUs) into cloud-native and scientific workload managers presents a unique orchestration challenge: remote quantum devices introduce a second, external queue -- a two-queue problem -- alongside the queue owned by the traditional scheduler. In this work we present Fluence, a Kubernetes scheduler plugin backed by the Fluxion graph-based scheduler, that enables informed, gang-scheduled placement for quantum-classical workloads and custom resources. We evaluate Fluence across three scenarios using AWS Braket simulators and real QPUs. First, under node contention, Fluence's atomic gang placement all but eliminates the wasted node-time that a default scheduler accrues by partially placing gangs. Second, we introduce a synchronization primitive for the two-queue problem in which a single producer submits a shared quantum task while consumers remain scheduling-gated, reducing worker idle time by roughly 5x under short device queues and by orders of magnitude when a real device queue stretched to hours. Third, cost- and queue-aware backend selection pins the cheapest or shortest-queue device satisfying a workload, cutting mean per-run cost by roughly 70x and time-to-result from hours to under a minute. Together, these results show that quantum-awareness can be added to a cloud-native scheduler without modifying user containers.
Hybrid quantum-classical workflows combine quantum processing units (QPUs) with classical hardware to address computational tasks that are challenging or infeasible for conventional systems alone. Coordinating these heterogeneous resources at scale demands robust orchestration, reproducibility, and observability. Even in the presence of fault-tolerant quantum devices, quantum computing will continue to operate within a broader hybrid ecosystem, where classical infrastructure plays a central role in task scheduling, data movement, error mitigation, and large-scale workflow coordination.
In this work, we present a cloud-native framework for managing hybrid quantum-HPC pipelines using Kubernetes, Argo Workflows, and Kueue. Our system unifies CPUs, GPUs, and QPUs under a single orchestration layer, enabling multi-stage workflows with dynamic, resource-aware scheduling. We demonstrate the framework with a proof-of-concept implementation of distributed quantum circuit cutting, showcasing execution across heterogeneous nodes and integration of classical and quantum tasks. This approach highlights the potential for scalable, reproducible, and flexible hybrid quantum-classical computing in cloud-native environments.
Quantum computing resources are increasingly being incorporated into high-performance computing (HPC) environments as co-processors for hybrid workloads. To support this paradigm, quantum devices must be treated as schedulable first-class resources within existing HPC infrastructure. This enables consistent workload management, unified resource visibility, and support for hybrid quantum-classical job execution models. This paper presents a reference architecture and implementation for the integration of quantum computing resources, both on-premises and cloud-hosted into HPC centers via standard workload managers. We introduce a Slurm plugin designed to abstract and control quantum backends, enabling seamless resource scheduling, minimizing queue duplication, and supporting job co-scheduling with classical compute nodes. The architecture supports heterogeneous quantum resources and can be extended to any workload (and container) management systems.
Hybrid quantum-classical applications pose significant resource management challenges due to heterogeneity and dynamism in both infrastructure and workloads. Quantum-HPC environments integrate quantum processing units (QPUs) with diverse classical resources (CPUs, GPUs), while applications span coupling patterns from tightly coupled execution to loosely coupled task parallelism with varying resource requirements. Traditional HPC schedulers lack visibility into application semantics and cannot respond to fluctuating resource availability at runtime. This paper presents a middleware-based approach for adaptive resource, workload, and task management in hybrid quantum-HPC systems. We make four contributions: (i) a conceptual four-layer middleware architecture that decomposes management across workflow, workload, task, and resource levels, enabling application-aware scheduling over heterogeneous quantum-HPC resources; (ii) a set of execution motifs capturing interaction and coupling characteristics of hybrid applications, realized as quantum mini-apps for systematic workload characterization; (iii) Pilot-Quantum, a middleware framework built on the pilot abstraction that enables late binding and dynamic resource allocation, adapting to resource and workload dynamics at runtime; and (iv) Q-Dreamer, a performance modeling toolkit providing reusable components for informed workload partitioning, including a circuit-cutting optimizer that analytically derives optimal partitioning strategies. Evaluation on heterogeneous HPC platforms (Perlmutter, NVIDIA DGX with H100/B200 GPUs) demonstrates efficient multi-backend orchestration across CPUs, GPUs, and QPUs for diverse execution motifs. Q-Dreamer predicts optimal circuit cutting configurations with up to 82% accuracy.
The efficient and scalable integration of quantum resources into high-performance computing (HPC) environments requires standardized mechanisms for resource management, scheduling, and workflow orchestration across diverse and heterogeneous infrastructures. The Quantum Resource Management Interface (QRMI) addresses this challenge through a thin, vendor-agnostic middleware layer that provides standardized APIs for scheduling, executing, and monitoring quantum workloads while exposing quantum resources as first-class schedulable resources alongside CPUs and GPUs. Although previous work demonstrated QRMI integration with the Slurm workload manager, its applicability across other workload managers remained unexamined. This paper extends the validation of QRMI to a broad range of workload managers, including PBS, LSF, Grid Engine, Kubernetes, and the Flux Framework, encompassing traditional batch schedulers, a cloud-native orchestration platform, and a graph-based scheduler. We examine the integration patterns, implementation requirements, and scheduler-specific considerations associated with each environment and compare QRMI with alternative approaches to quantum resource integration. We demonstrate that QRMI provides a portable and flexible abstraction layer that minimizes scheduler-specific modifications while enabling consistent access to heterogeneous quantum resources across both on-premises and cloud environments.
As quantum computing (QC) technologies mature, their integration into established high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures is becoming a central objective for next-generation computing systems. However, unlocking the potential of hybrid platforms for computationally demanding workloads remains challenging. The mismatch between quantum and classical programming models, the limited maturity of quantum software stacks, and the scarcity of quantum processing units (QPUs) above all, necessitate scheduling strategies that go beyond standard HPC mechanisms to manage such heterogeneous and constrained resources.
To address this issue, we investigate three distinct methodologies for HPC-QC resource scheduling: time-based multiplexing, dynamic resource management, and workflow decomposition. Experimental validation on production HPC clusters and real quantum hardware demonstrates the effectiveness of these approaches under different workload scenarios. Malleability and workflow strategies significantly optimize classical resource utilization, reducing consumption by up to 45.7% and 64% respectively, proving to be best fitted for hybrid jobs where quantum and classical workloads are evenly balanced. Conversely, time-multiplexing enhances QPU utilization and reduces execution time at the cluster level, making it the optimal strategy for the opposite context, which is characterized by high classical-quantum workload imbalances. These findings underscore the practical viability of tailored scheduling strategies for hybrid HPC-QC environments and highlight their complementarity in building efficient, scalable software stacks for next-generation quantum-accelerated facilities.
Abstract Hybrid classical-quantum computing creates a scheduling challenge. Tasks need assignment over time and across different resources, each with unique execution, setup, and queue traits. This paper introduces a machine-learning-based scheduler for placing tasks between classical CPU and quantum processing resources in a simulated environment. We use the Wiki-Vote network from the Stanford Network Analysis Project as a workload source. We build a benchmark of connected Max-Cut task instances by sampling subgraphs of different sizes. Each task is profiled under both classical and quantum execution modes. The resulting dataset combines task features, runtime behaviour, and queue-state conditions. We evaluate multiple learning models for predicting task placement. Their scheduling decisions are compared to classical-only, quantum-only, and rule-based hybrid baselines. Results show that our ML-based scheduler outperforms all others. It achieves the lowest average completion time, smallest makespan, highest throughput, and best decision accuracy. Feature analysis reveals that queue pressure, system regime, and task priority are key factors in placement decisions. Graph and circuit complexity also enhance predictive power. These findings suggest that data-driven scheduling can boost resource efficiency in hybrid classical-quantum environments. This approach offers a practical path for intelligent task placement in emerging heterogeneous systems.