Allow Noise Simulation for simulator backends

qiskit/aqua/quantum_instance.py

@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
                                   is_simulator_backend,
                                   is_local_backend,
                                   is_aer_qasm,
+                                  is_basicaer_provider,
                                   support_backend_options)
 from .utils.circuit_utils import summarize_circuits
 
@@ -170,7 +171,7 @@ def __init__(self,
         # setup noise config
         self._noise_config = {}
         if noise_model is not None:
-            if is_aer_qasm(self._backend):
+            if is_simulator_backend(self._backend) and not is_basicaer_provider(self._backend):
                 self._noise_config = {'noise_model': noise_model}
             else:
                 raise AquaError("The noise model is not supported on the selected backend {} ({}) "
@@ -427,7 +428,7 @@ def set_config(self, **kwargs):
                     self._backend_options['backend_options'] = {}
                 self._backend_options['backend_options'][k] = v
             elif k in QuantumInstance._NOISE_CONFIG:
-                if not is_aer_qasm(self._backend):
+                if not is_simulator_backend(self._backend) or is_basicaer_provider(self._backend):
                     raise AquaError(
                         "The noise model is not supported on the selected backend {} ({}) "
                         "only certain backends, such as Aer qasm support "

releasenotes/notes/noise_model-8e27eb648456f8a9.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+fixes:
+  - |
+    Let backend simulators validate NoiseModel support instead of restricting to Aer only
+    in QuantumInstance.

test/aqua/test_skip_qobj_validation.py

@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
 from test.aqua import QiskitAquaTestCase
 from qiskit import QuantumCircuit, QuantumRegister, ClassicalRegister
 from qiskit import BasicAer
-from qiskit.aqua import QuantumInstance
+from qiskit.aqua import QuantumInstance, AquaError
 
 
 def _compare_dict(dict1, dict2):
@@ -103,6 +103,15 @@ def test_w_noise(self):
         res_w_noise_skip_validation = quantum_instance.execute(self.qc).get_counts(self.qc)
         self.assertTrue(_compare_dict(res_w_noise, res_w_noise_skip_validation))
 
+        # BasicAer should fail:
+        with self.assertRaises(AquaError):
+            _ = QuantumInstance(BasicAer.get_backend('qasm_simulator'),
+                                noise_model=noise_model)
+
+        with self.assertRaises(AquaError):
+            quantum_instance = QuantumInstance(BasicAer.get_backend('qasm_simulator'))
+            quantum_instance.set_config(noise_model=noise_model)
+
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     unittest.main()