Avoiding blocking by scheduling transactions using quantum annealing

Quantum annealers are a special kind of quantum computers for solving optimization problems. In this paper, we investigate the benefits of quantum annealers in the field of transaction synchronization. In particular, we show how transactions using the 2-phase-locking protocol can be optimally distributed to any number of available machines to reduce transaction waiting times. Therefore an instance of the problem will be transformed into a formula that is accepted by quantum annealers. In an experimental evaluation, the runtime on a quantum annealer outperforms the runtime of traditional algorithms to solve combinatorial problems like simulated annealing already for small problem sizes.