Scalable quantum computing requires architectural solutions beyond monolithic processors. Distributed quantum computing (DQC) addresses this challenge by interconnecting smaller quantum nodes through quantum communication protocols, enabling collaborative computation. While several experimental and theoretical proposals for DQC exist, emulator platforms are essential tools for exploring their feasibility under realistic conditions. In this work, we introduce a benchmarking framework to evaluate DQC emulators using a distributed implementation of the inverse Quantum Fourier Transform (
QFT†) as a representative test case, which enables efficient phase recovery from pre-encoded Fourier states. The QFT is partitioned across nodes using teleportation-based protocols, and performance is analyzed in terms of execution time, memory usage, and fidelity with respect to a monolithic baseline.
As part of this work, we review a broad range of emulators, identifying their capabilities and limitations for programming distributed quantum algorithms. Many platforms either lacked support for teleportation protocols or required complex workarounds. Consequently, we select and benchmark four representative emulators: Qiskit Aer, SquidASM, Interlin-q, and SQUANCH. They differ significantly in their support for discrete-event simulation, quantum networking, noise modeling, and parallel execution. Our results highlight the trade-offs between architectural fidelity and simulation scalability, providing a foundation for future emulator development and the validation of distributed quantum protocols. This framework can be extended to support additional algorithms and emulators.
Distributed quantum computing (DQC) connects multiple quantum processing units to overcome the scale limits of monolithic hardware. We introduce SeQUeNCe
.DQC a new top-level module within the SeQUeNCe package that compiles monolithic circuits into topology-aware execution plans and coordinates their execution using SeQUeNCe's existing quantum-network modules and protocols. We validate SeQUeNCe
.DQC by reproducing a two-node trapped-ion Grover experiment in simulation and comparing success probabilities with the reported 71% benchmark. We then evaluate how compiler strategy, topology, and memory capacity jointly govern distributed circuit execution time and success rate. In these experiments, our hybrid compilers successfully identified mixed TeleGate/TeleData execution plans that outperformed pure gate-teleportation strategies. By capturing the physical overhead of distributed quantum primitives, SeQUeNCe
.DQC provides a rigorous platform for co-designing DQC software and hardware architectures.