Quantum computers (QCs) aim to disrupt the status-quo of computing - replacing traditional systems and platforms that are driven by digital circuits and modular software - with hardware and software that operate on the principle of quantum mechanics. QCs that rely on quantum mechanics can exploit quantum circuits (i.e., quantum bits for manipulating quantum gates) to achieve ‘quantum computational supremacy’ over traditional, i.e., digital computing systems. Currently, the issues that impede mass-scale adoption of quantum systems are rooted in the fact that building, maintaining, and/or programming QCs is a complex and radically distinct engineering paradigm when compared to the challenges of classical computing and software engineering. Quantum service orientation is seen as a solution that synergises the research on service computing and quantum software engineering (QSE) to allow developers and users to build and utilise quantum software services based on pay-per-shot utility computing model. The pay-per-shot model represents a single execution of instruction on quantum processing unit and it allows vendors (e.g., Amazon Braket) to offer their QC platforms, simulators, and software services to end-users. This research contributes by (i) developing a reference architecture for enabling Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), (ii) implementing microservices with the quantum-classic split pattern as an architectural use-case, and (iii) evaluating the architecture based on practitioners’ feedback. The proposed reference architecture follows a layered software pattern to support the three phases of service lifecycle namely development, deployment, and split of quantum software services. In the QSE context, the research focuses on unifying architectural methods and service-orientation patterns to promote reuse knowledge and best practices to tackle emerging and futuristic challenges of architecting QCaaS.
Quantum computers (QCs) aim to disrupt the status-quo of computing - replacing traditional systems and platforms that are driven by digital circuits and modular software - with hardware and software that operate on the principle of quantum mechanics. QCs that rely on quantum mechanics can exploit quantum circuits (i.e., quantum bits for manipulating quantum gates) to achieve ‘quantum computational supremacy’ over traditional, i.e., digital computing systems. Currently, the issues that impede mass-scale adoption of quantum systems are rooted in the fact that building, maintaining, and/or programming QCs is a complex and radically distinct engineering paradigm when compared to the challenges of classical computing and software engineering. Quantum service orientation is seen as a solution that synergises the research on service computing and quantum software engineering (QSE) to allow developers and users to build and utilise quantum software services based on pay-per-shot utility computing model. The pay-per-shot model represents a single execution of instruction on quantum processing unit and it allows vendors (e.g., Amazon Braket) to offer their QC platforms, simulators, and software services to end-users. This research contributes by (i) developing a reference architecture for enabling Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS), (ii) implementing microservices with the quantum-classic split pattern as an architectural use-case, and (iii) evaluating the architecture based on practitioners’ feedback. The proposed reference architecture follows a layered software pattern to support the three phases of service lifecycle namely development, deployment, and split of quantum software services. In the QSE context, the research focuses on unifying architectural methods and service-orientation patterns to promote reuse knowledge and best practices to tackle emerging and futuristic challenges of architecting QCaaS.
Quantum computers (QCs) aim to disrupt the status-quo of computing -- replacing traditional systems and platforms that are driven by digital circuits and modular software -- with hardware and software that operates on the principle of quantum mechanics. QCs that rely on quantum mechanics can exploit quantum circuits (i.e., quantum bits for manipulating quantum gates) to achieve "quantum computational supremacy" over traditional, i.e., digital computing systems. Currently, the issues that impede mass-scale adoption of quantum systems are rooted in the fact that building, maintaining, and/or programming QCs is a complex and radically distinct engineering paradigm when compared to challenges of classical computing and software engineering. Quantum service orientation is seen as a solution that synergises the research on service computing and quantum software engineering (QSE) to allow developers and users to build and utilise quantum software services based on pay-per-shot utility computing model. The pay-per-shot model represents a single execution of instruction on quantum processing unit and it allows vendors (e.g., Amazon Braket) to offer their QC platforms, simulators, software services etc. to enterprises and individuals who do not need to own or maintain quantum systems. This research contributes by 1) developing a reference architecture for enabling quantum computing as a service, 2) implementing microservices with the quantum-classic split pattern as an architectural use-case, and 3) evaluating the reference architecture based on feedback by 22 practitioners. In the QSE context, the research focuses on unifying architectural methods and service-orientation patterns to promote reuse knowledge and best practices to tackle emerging and futuristic challenges of architecting and implementing Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS).
Quantum computers (QCs) aim to disrupt the status-quo of computing – replacing traditional systems and platforms that are driven by digital circuits and modular software – with hardware and software that operates on the principle of quantum mechanics. QCs that rely on quantum mechanics can exploit quantum circuits (i.e., quantum bits for manipulating quantum gates) to achieve ‘quantum computational supremacy’ over traditional, i.e., digital computing systems. This research contributes by (i) developing a reference architecture for enabling quantum computing as a service, (ii) implementing microservices with the quantum-classic split pattern as an architectural use-case, and (iii) evaluating the reference architecture based on feedback by 22 practitioners. In the QSE context, the research focuses on unifying architectural methods and service-orientation patterns to promote reuse knowledge and best practices to tackle emerging and futuristic challenges of architecting and implementing Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS).
Quantum systems have started to emerge as a disruptive technology and enabling platforms - exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics - to achieve quantum supremacy in computing. Academic research, industrial projects (e.g., Amazon Braket), and consortiums like 'Quantum Flagship' are striving to develop practically capable and commercially viable quantum computing (QC) systems and technologies. Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) is viewed as a solution attuned to the philosophy of service-orientation that can offer QC resources and platforms, as utility computing, to individuals and organisations who do not own quantum computers. To understand the quantum service development life cycle and pinpoint emerging trends, we used evidence-based software engineering approach to conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS) of research that enables or enhances QCaaS. The SMS process retrieved a total of 55 studies, and based on their qualitative assessment we selected 9 of them to investigate (i) the functional aspects, design models, patterns, programming languages, deployment platforms, and (ii) trends of emerging research on QCaaS. The results indicate three modelling notations and a catalogue of five design patterns to architect QCaaS, whereas Python (native code or frameworks) and Amazon Braket are the predominant solutions to implement and deploy QCaaS solutions. From the quantum software engineering (QSE) perspective, this SMS provides empirically grounded findings that could help derive processes, patterns, and reference architectures to engineer software services for QC.
Quantum systems have started to emerge as a disruptive technology and enabling platforms - exploiting the principles of quantum mechanics via programmable quantum bits (QuBits) - to achieve quantum supremacy in computing. Academic research, industrial projects (e.g., Amazon Braket, IBM Qiskit), and consortiums like 'Quantum Flagship' are striving to develop practically capable and commercially viable quantum computing (QC) systems and technologies. Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) is viewed as a solution attuned to the philosophy of service-orientation that can offer QC resources and platforms, as utility computing, to individuals and organisations who do not own quantum computers. This research investigates a process-centric and architecture-driven approach to offer a software engineering perspective on enabling QCaaS - a.k.a quantum service-orientation. We employed a two-phase research method comprising (a) a systematic mapping study and (b) an architecture-based development, first to identify the phases of the quantum service development life cycle and subsequently to integrate these phases into a reference architecture that supports QCaaS. The SMS process retrieved a collection of potentially relevant research literature and based on a multi-step selection and qualitative assessment, we selected 41 peer-reviewed studies to answer three RQs. The RQs investigate (i) demographic details in terms of frequency, types, and trends of research, (ii) phases of quantum service development lifecycle to derive a reference architecture for conception, modeling, assembly, and deployment of services, and (iii) The results identify a 4-phased development lifecycle along with quantum significant requirements (QSRs), various modeling notations, catalogue of patterns, programming languages, and deployment platforms that can be integrated in a layered reference architecture to engineer QCaaS.
Quantum Software Engineering (QSE) is a recent trend - focused on unifying the principles of quantum mechanics and practices of software engineering - to design, develop, validate, and evolve quantum age software systems and applications. Software architecture for quantum computing (a.k. a. quantum software architectures (QSA)) supports the design, development, and maintenance etc. phases of quantum software systems using architectural components and connectors. QSA can enable quantum software designers and developers to map the operations of Qubits to architectural components and connectors for implementing quantum software. This research aims to explore the role of QSAs by investigating (i) architectural process having architecting activities, and (ii) human roles that can exploit available tools to automate and customise architecture-centric implementation of quantum software. Results of this research can facilitate knowledge transfer, enabling researchers and practitioners, to address challenges of architecture-centric implementation of quantum software systems.
As quantum computers mature, the complexity of quantum software increases. As we move from the initial standalone quantum algorithms toward complex solutions combining quantum algorithms with traditional software, new software engineering methods and abstractions are needed. Nowadays, quantum computers are usually offered in the cloud, under a pay-per-use model, leading to the adoption of the service-oriented good practices that dominate the cloud today. However, specific adaptations are needed to reap the benefits of service-oriented computing while dealing with quantum hardware limitations. In this article, we propose the Quantum API Gateway—an adaptation of the API Gateway pattern that takes into account the fact that quantum services cannot be deployed as traditional services. Instead, the Quantum API Gateway recommends the best quantum computer to run a specific quantum service at run time. As proof of concept, we provide an implementation of the Quantum API Gateway for the Amazon Braket platform.