Hybrid VQA architectures for cloud-based quantum platforms: maximizing computational utility

Abstract

Hybrid Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) present a highly viable pathway to near-term quantum utility; however, their performance is fundamentally bottlenecked by classical-quantum communication latency in Quantumas-a-Service (QaaS) environments. This paper proposes an optimized classical-quantum orchestration architecture designed to minimize cloud-induced latency and maximize Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) active compute time. By implementing edge-colocated classical optimizers alongside batched parameter-shift gradient evaluations, the system circumvents stateless cloud API barriers. Benchmarking across parameterized quantum circuits ranging from 15 to 50 qubits demonstrates an 84% reduction in network-induced QPU idle time. The framework yields a 3.2 × speedup in overall convergence time for the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) and up to a 98% reduction in classical API call overhead compared to standard RESTful QaaS execution models. These quantitative findings demonstrate that tightly coupled hybrid co-processing, physically adjacent to the control electronics, is critical for extending the computational bound of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices.