Installation¶

NetQMPI has a small core and a set of optional backends. The core is what your application code depends on; each backend lives behind a lazy import, so you only need to install the dependencies of the backend you actually run.

Core package¶

pip install netqmpi

The core has a single runtime dependency, pyyaml (used to parse --config files). Installing it gives you the netqmpi command-line entry point and the whole SDK.

To work from a checkout instead:

git clone https://github.com/NetQIR/net-qmpi.git
cd net-qmpi
pip install -e .

Backends¶

Pick the backend that matches what you want to do — see Backends for the comparison — and install its dependencies.

CUNQA

HPC emulation of DQC through virtual QPUs. This is the reference backend, and what the shipped examples are written against.

On a cluster: install and configure CUNQA (it provisions vQPUs through the job scheduler), then install netqmpi in the same environment.

On an ordinary computer, use the container — it packs a single-node SLURM, CUNQA and NetQMPI together, so your machine stands in for the HPC environment:

docker pull jvazquezperez/cunqa_netqmpi
docker run --rm -it -p 8888:8888 jvazquezperez/cunqa_netqmpi

SLURM and a Jupyter server on port 8888 (token cunqa) come up, and you get a shell. It runs the real backend, so it also runs out of room like one: expect a ceiling of five or six ranks on a single machine.

See the CUNQA backend page for mounting your own checkout, raising vQPUs and sizing them.

NetQASM / SquidASM

Low-level quantum-network simulation. NetSquid and SquidASM come from a private index that needs a free account; see the NetQASM installation docs.

conda create -n netqasm2 python=3.11 pip -y
conda activate netqasm2
export PIP_EXTRA_INDEX_URL='https://<user>:<url-encoded-pwd>@pypi.netsquid.org'
pip install "squidasm>=0.13" "netqasm>=2,<3"

This pulls in netsquid and netqasm 2.x — used by --netqasm. The verified set is pinned in environments/netqasm2-requirements.txt.

For the legacy --netqasm1.0 path, build a second environment on Python 3.8 with netqasm 1.x instead; 2.x requires Python 3.9 or newer.

Tip

Pin squidasm>=0.13. PyPI carries a placeholder package of the same name at 0.0.1 with no dependencies, and pip installs that in preference to the real one unless a version floor sends it to the private index.

Qiskit Aer

Shot-based circuit simulation. The lightest option, and the only one with no special installation requirements.

pip install qiskit qiskit-aer

Qoala

Quantum-internet node execution environment, with task scheduling and multitasking. Simulation only.

conda create -n qoala python=3.11 -y
conda activate qoala
pip install netsquid --extra-index-url https://<user>:<pwd>@pypi.netsquid.org
pip install qoala   --extra-index-url https://<user>:<pwd>@pypi.netsquid.org
pip install netqmpi

Qoala requires Python 3.10–3.12 and netqasm 2.x.

Two things that will bite you¶

NetSquid needs an account

The NetQASM and Qoala backends both depend on NetSquid, which is distributed from a private package index and requires a free account:

pip install netsquid --extra-index-url https://<user>:<pwd>@pypi.netsquid.org

Substitute your NetSquid credentials for <user> and <pwd>.

Three environments, and what actually separates them

Environment	Holds	Serves
`netqasm2`	SquidASM + `netqasm` 2.x + `netsquid-magic` 16.x, Python ≥ 3.9	`--netqasm`
`squidasm`	SquidASM + `netqasm` 1.x, Python 3.8	`--netqasm1.0`
`qoala`	qoala-sim + `netqasm` 2.3 + `netsquid-magic` 14.x	`--qoala`

SquidASM and Qoala cannot share an environment, but not because of the NetQASM version — both run on 2.x. They need incompatible majors of netsquid-magic (16.x against 14.x), and installing one over the other leaves the displaced backend unable to build a link layer.

SquidASM also caps at NetQASM 2.0.0 (squidasm 0.13.6 declares netqasm<=2.0.0), while qoala-sim builds on 2.3. And NetQASM 2.x needs Python 3.9 or newer, which is what keeps the legacy 1.x environment on 3.8.

CUNQA and Aer have no such constraints and can share an environment with any of them.

Verifying the installation¶

netqmpi --help

The CLI itself imports no backend, so this works as soon as the core package is installed. To check a backend end to end, run one of the shipped examples:

netqmpi -n 2 examples/1_send_recv.py --aer --shots 1024

Python version¶

setup.py declares python_requires='>=3.6', but the effective floor is set by the backend you choose:

Backend	Effective Python requirement
Qiskit Aer	Whatever `qiskit` supports
NetQASM / SquidASM	Set by the `netsquid` / `squidasm` wheels
CUNQA	Set by the cluster’s CUNQA build
Qoala	3.10 – 3.12