VQCNN: variational quantum convolutional neural networks based on quantum filters and fully connected layers

• Published in: Computer journal 2024-10, Vol.67 (10), p.2970-2983
• Main Authors: Qi, Han, Wang, Jingtong, Cui, Yufan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0010-4620; 1460-2067
• DOI: 10.1093/comjnl/bxae062

Classical machine learning is more susceptible to adversarial examples due to its linear and non-robust nature, which results in a severe degradation of the recognition accuracy of classical machine learning models. Quantum techniques are shown to have a higher robustness advantage and are more resistant to attacks from adversarial examples than classical machine learning. Inspired by the robustness advantage of quantum computing and the feature extraction advantage of convolutional neural networks, this paper proposes a novel variational quantum convolutional neural network model (VQCNN), whose quantum fully connected layer consists of a combination of a quantum filter and a variational quantum neural network to increase the model’s adversarial robustness. The network intrusion detection model based on VQCNN is verified on KDD CUP99 and UNSW-NB datasets. The results show that under the attack of Fast Gradient Sign Method, the decline values of accuracy, precision, and recall rate of the intrusion detection model based on VQCNN are less than those of the other four models, and it has higher adversarial robustness.