Solving Virtual Backbone Problems with Digitized Cyclic Annealing on Near-Term Quantum Computers

Current quantum computers are limited in the number of operations they can execute, which can limit the performance of certain algorithms such as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). We show that we can circumvent this limitation by iteratively improving the quality of the solutions we obtained from a depth-limited QAOA circuit by using insights from the phase diagrams of the related spin system. We apply this Cyclic annealing technique to identify the virtual backbone of a unit-disk graph, a problem encountered in network design and antenna placement.

Date: 31 July 2026
Journal/conference link and reference: Published in 2026 35th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN) 
DOI : 10.1109/ICCCN69946.2026.11662952