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24 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2018 faster and more real-time, but also one that is highly reliable and can handle business models and applications that today's network cannot. The objective is not just super-fast data- link speeds, super high-reliability or low-latency connections—for video- base augmented reality, for example— or the ability to connect the quickly- growing number of devices to the network; the objec- tive is to create a network archi- tecture that takes advan- tage of virtualiza- tion. This means a network that is flexible and can be "sliced" into different functionality for different users—regardless of their physical location. Las Marias: How will 5G impact the electronics assembly industry? Nichols: The electronics assembly industry has already met an amazing change in demands for speed and circuit density. These demands will continue to increase with miniaturization being driven by the need for portability, reduc- tion in power-consumption, and integration of In an interview with SMT007 Magazine, Roger Nichols, 5G program manager at test and measurement provider Keysight Technologies Inc., discusses the opportunities that 5G will enable, the many challenges facing elec- tronics manufacturers when it comes to 5G, and how they are helping the industry address these issues. Stephen Las Marias: Please give us a brief overview of 5G. How will this differ from 4G, and what other applications do you think it will enable? Roger Nichols: The vision for 5G includes the following elements: great service in a crowd, amazingly fast, ubiqui- tous things communicat- ing, super reliable and real- time communications, and the best service for the user. This was postulated by the Mobile and Wireless Communications Enablers for the Twenty-Twenty Information Society (METIS) program in 2013, and still holds. The best way to interpret the vision is that we will have a network that is not just Feature Interview by Stephen Las Marias I-CONNECT007