An Introduction to Quantum Computing
An Introduction to Quantum Computing ____________________________________________________________________________________
Quantum Gradient Estimation
Potential query advantage
Estimate derivatives
Optimisation/ML
Quantum Random Walk / Markov methods
Potential polynomial advantage
Sampling and search
Networks, optimisation
Sampling photon distributions
Boson Sampling
Believed digitally difficult
Photonic quantum computing
Gaussian Boson Sampling
Structured sampling
Believed digitally difficult
Graph problems, chemistry
Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQA)
General hybrid framework
NISQ-oriented
Optimisation, chemistry, ML
The most important ones to know. From a telecommunication’s / industry perspective, about eight would be a quantity to concentrate on: 1. Shor — the algorithm that creates the long-term threat to RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography. This is why telecom operators need to think about post-quantum cryptography (PQC) now. 2. Grover — affects symmetric cryptography. In simplified terms, brute-force security against a quantum attacker is roughly square-rooted, which is one reason AES-256 is attractive for long-term security. 3. QFT — a fundamental quantum building block, analogous in importance to Fourier techniques in digital engineering, although it does something rather different from simply running a classical FFT faster. 4. QPE — one of the foundations of fault-tolerant quantum simulation and important for chemistry/materials problems. 5. VQE — particularly relevant to todays and near-term quantum machines because it combines a quantum processor with a classical optimiser. 6. QAOA — potentially interesting for telecom problems such as network routing, capacity allocation, fibre planning, spectrum assignment and resource optimisation . 7. Quantum Amplitude Estimation — potentially valuable for probabilistic modelling, risk and Monte Carlo-type calculations. 8. QSVT/QSP — more advanced, but increasingly important because they provide a common mathematical framework behind a surprisingly large number of quantum algorithms. There is also an important distinction between quantum algorithms and quantum communications . Quantum entanglement, QKD, quantum repeaters and quantum teleportation are not themselves algorithms comparable to Shor or Grover. They are protocols/physical techniques for quantum information and communications.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________ SCTE Technical Committee : Dave Hodges and Dr Anthony Basham. © 2026 Society for Broadband Professionals. All rights reserved Page 23
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