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Near-field communication

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An NFC mobile phone interacting with a "smart poster"

Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. NFC operates at 13.56 MHz and at rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to 848 kbit/s. NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, where both devices are powered.

Essential Specifications

  • As with proximity card technology, near-field communication is mediated by magnetic induction between two loop antennas located within each other's near field, effectively forming an air-core transformer. It operates within the globally available and unlicensed radio frequency ISM band of 13.56 MHz. Most of the RF energy is concentrated in the allowed 14 kHz bandwidth range, but the full spectral envelope may be as wide as 1.8 MHz when using ASK modulation.[1]
  • Working distance with compact standard antennas: up to 20 cm
  • Supported data rates: 106, 212, 424 or 848 kbit/s
  • There are two modes:
    • Passive Communication Mode: The Initiator device provides a carrier field and the target device answers by modulating the existing field. In this mode, the Target device may draw its operating power from the Initiator-provided electromagnetic field, thus making the Target device a transponder.
    • Active Communication Mode: Both Initiator and Target device communicate by alternately generating their own fields. A device deactivates its RF field while it is waiting for data. In this mode, both devices typically have power supplies.
Baud Active device passive device
424 kBd Manchester, 10% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK
212 kBd Manchester, 10% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK
106 kBd Modified Miller, 100% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK
  • NFC employs two different codings to transfer data. If an active device transfers data at 106 kbit/s, a modified Miller coding with 100% modulation is used. In all other cases Manchester coding is used with a modulation ratio of 10%.
  • NFC devices are able to receive and transmit data at the same time. Thus, they need to check the radio frequency field and can detect a collision if the received signal does not match with the transmitted signal.

Uses and applications

NFC technology is intended mainly for use in mobile phones. There are currently three specific uses for NFC:

  • Card emulation: the NFC device behaves like an existing contactless card
  • Reader mode: the NFC device is active and reads a passive RFID tag, for example for interactive advertising
  • P2P mode: two NFC devices communicating together and exchanging information.

Plenty of applications are possible, such as:

  • Mobile ticketing in public transport: an extension of the existing contactless infrastructure, such as Mobile Phone Boarding Pass.[2]
  • Mobile payment: the device acts as a debit/credit payment card.
  • Smart poster: the mobile phone is used to read RFID tags on outdoor billboards.
  • Bluetooth pairing: in the future pairing of Bluetooth 2.1 devices with NFC support will be as easy as bringing them close together and accepting the pairing. The process of activating Bluetooth on both sides, searching, waiting, pairing and authorization will be replaced by simply bringing the mobile phones close to each other.

Other applications in the future could include:

A patent licensing program for NFC is currently under development by Via Licensing Corporation, an independent subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories.

A Public, platform independent Near Field Communication (NFC) library is released under the free GNU Lesser General Public License by the name libnfc.

In December 2008 the application eCL0WN[3] was released which allows you to read and copy the chip content of biometric passports.

At the end of 2010 Telefónica, La Caixa and Visa participated in a pilot project in Sitges pioneer in Europe with over 1,500 users and 500 shops [4]

Comparison with Bluetooth

NFC Bluetooth Bluetooth Low Energy
RFID compatible ISO 18000-3 active active
Standardisation body ISO/IEC Bluetooth SIG Bluetooth SIG
Network Standard ISO 13157 etc. IEEE 802.15.1 IEEE 802.15.1
Network Type Point-to-point WPAN WPAN
Cryptography not with RFID available available
Range < 0.2 m ~10 m (class 2) ~1 m (class 3)
Frequency 13.56 MHz 2.4-2.5 GHz 2.4-2.5 GHz
Bit rate 424 kbit/s 2.1 Mbit/s ~1.0 Mbit/s
Set-up time < 0.1 s < 6 s < 1 s
Power consumption < 15mA (read) varies with class < 15 mA (xmit)

NFC and Bluetooth are both short-range communication technologies which are integrated into mobile phones. To avoid a complicated configuration process, NFC can be used for the set-up of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth.

NFC sets up faster than standard Bluetooth, but is not much faster than Bluetooth low energy. With NFC, instead of performing manual configurations to identify devices, the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established quickly — in less than a tenth of a second. The maximum data transfer rate of NFC (424 kbit/s) is slower than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s). With a maximum working distance of less than 20 cm, NFC has a shorter range, which reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception. That makes NFC particularly suitable for crowded areas where correlating a signal with its transmitting physical device (and by extension, its user) becomes difficult.

In contrast to Bluetooth, NFC is compatible with existing passive RFID (13.56 MHz ISO/IEC 18000-3) infrastructures. NFC requires comparatively low power, similar to the Bluetooth V4.0 low energy protocol. However, when NFC works with an unpowered device (e.g. on a phone that may be turned off, a contactless smart credit card, a smart poster, etc.), the NFC power consumption is greater than that of Bluetooth V4.0 Low Energy. Illumination of the passive tag needs extra power.

Standardization bodies and industry projects

Standards

NFC was approved as an ISO/IEC standard on December 8, 2003 and later as an ECMA standard.

NFC is an open platform technology standardized in ECMA-340 and ISO/IEC 18092. These standards specify the modulation schemes, coding, transfer speeds and frame format of the RF interface of NFC devices, as well as initialization schemes and conditions required for data collision-control during initialization for both passive and active NFC modes. Furthermore, they also define the transport protocol, including protocol activation and data-exchange methods. The air interface for NFC is standardized in:

ISO/IEC 18092 / ECMA-340
Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol-1 (NFCIP-1)[5]
ISO/IEC 21481 / ECMA-352
Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol-2 (NFCIP-2)[6]

NFC incorporates a variety of existing standards including ISO/IEC 14443 both Type A (normal) and Type B (banking/short range), and FeliCa. NFC enabled phones work basically, at least, with existing readers. Especially in "card emulation mode" a NFC device should transmit, at a minimum, a unique ID number to an existing reader.

In addition, the NFC Forum has defined a common data format called NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF), which can store and transport various kinds of items, ranging from any MIME-typed object to ultra-short RTD-documents, such as URLs.

NDEF is conceptually very similar to MIME. It is a dense binary format of so-called "records", in which each record can hold a different type of object. By convention, the type of the first record defines the context of the entire message.

GSMA

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing 700 mobile phone operators across 218 countries of the world.

They have launched 3 initiatives:

On 13 February 2007, they published a white paper on NFC to give the point of view of mobile operators on the NFC ecosystem.[8]

  • the Pay buy mobile initiative seeks to define a common global approach to using Near Field Communications (NFC) technology to link mobile devices with payment and contactless systems.[9][10] To date, 30 mobile operators have joined this initiative.
  • On November 17, 2010, after two years of discussions, the three largest U.S. mobile phone carriers have launched a joint venture intended to develop a single platform on which technology based on the Near Field Communication (NFC) specifications can be used by their customers to make mobile payments. The new venture, known as ISIS, is designed to usher in the broad deployment of NFC technology, allowing NFC-enabled cell phones to function similarly to credit cards for the 200 million customers using cell phone service provided by any of the three carriers throughout the United States.

StoLPaN

StoLPaN (‘Store Logistics and Payment with NFC’) is a pan-European consortium supported by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies program. StoLPaN will examine the as yet untapped potential for bringing together the new kind of local wireless interface, NFC and mobile communication.

NFC Forum

The NFC Forum is a non-profit industry association announced on March 18, 2004 by NXP Semiconductors, Sony and Nokia to advance the use of NFC short-range wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. The NFC Forum promotes implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services. In September 2008, there were over 150 members of the NFC Forum.

Alternative Form Factors

To realize the benefits of NFC in cellphones not yet equipped with built in NFC chips a new line of complementary devices were created. MicroSD and UICC SIM cards were developed to incorporate industry standard contactless smartcard chips with ISO14443 interface, with or without built in antenna. The microSD form factor with built in antenna has the greatest potential as bridge device to shorten the time to market of contactless payment and couponing applications, while the built in NFC contollers gain enough market share.

Other standardization bodies

Other standardization bodies that are involved in NFC include:

  • ETSI / SCP (Smart Card Platform) to specify the interface between the SIM card and the NFC chipset.
  • GlobalPlatform to specify a multi-application architecture of the secure element.
  • EMVCo for the impacts on the EMV payment applications.

Security aspects

Although the communication range of NFC is limited to a few centimeters, NFC alone does not ensure secure communications. In 2006, Ernst Haselsteiner and Klemens Breitfuß described different possible types of attacks, and detail how to leverage NFC's resistance to Man-in-the-middle attacks to establish a specific key.[11] Unfortunately, as this technique is not part of the ISO standard, NFC offers no protection against eavesdropping and can be vulnerable to data modifications. Applications may use higher-layer cryptographic protocols (e.g., SSL) to establish a secure channel.

Eavesdropping

The RF signal for the wireless data transfer can be picked up with antennas. The distance from which an attacker is able to eavesdrop the RF signal depends on numerous parameters, but is typically a small number of meters.[12] Also, eavesdropping is extremely affected by the communication mode. A passive device that does not generate its own RF field is much harder to eavesdrop on than an active device. One Open source device that is able to eavesdrop on passive and active NFC communications is the Proxmark instrument.

Data modification

Data destruction is relatively easy to realize. One possibility to perturb the signal is the usage of an RFID jammer. There is no way to prevent such an attack, but if the NFC devices check the RF field while they are sending, it is possible to detect it.

Unauthorized modification of data which results in valid messages is much more complicated, and demands a thorough understanding. In order to modify the transmitted data, an intruder has to deal with the single bits of the RF signal. The feasibility of this attack, i.e., if it is possible to change the value of a bit from 0 to 1 or the other way around, is amongst others subject to the strength of the amplitude modulation. If data is transferred with the modified Miller coding and a modulation of 100%, only certain bits can be modified. A modulation ratio of 100% makes it possible to eliminate a pause of the RF signal, but not to generate a pause where no pause has been. Thus, only a 1 which is followed by another 1 might be changed. Transmitting Manchester-encoded data with a modulation ratio of 10% permits a modification attack on all bits.

Relay attack

Because NFC devices usually include ISO/IEC 14443 protocols, the relay attacks described are also feasible on NFC.[13][14] For this attack the adversary has to forward the request of the reader to the victim and relay back its answer to the reader in real time, in order to carry out a task pretending to be the owner of the victim’s smart card. One of libnfc code examples demonstrates a relay attack using only two stock commercial NFC devices.

Lost property

The very simple problem of losing the mobile phone and therewith opening access to any finder of the property is not addressed. Either the NFC RFID card or the mobile phone will act as a single-factor authenticating entity, beyond the fact that the mobile phone is protected with the PIN code, again as a single authenticating factor. Hence the basic way of defeating the lost-property threat requires an extended security concept including more than one physically independent authentication factor.

Walk off

Once lawfully opened, access to a secure function or data is usually protected by time-out closing after a period of inactivity. Modern attacks may succeed, despite provisions to shut down access when the user turns inactive. The distance of a successful attacker to the locus of lawfully granted access is not addressed with any of the described concepts.

NFC-enabled handsets

Future devices

On November 15, 2010 Eric Schmidt announced at the Web 2.0 Summit [25] that the Android will support NFC starting from version 2.3 ("Gingerbread"). The first Android handset which supports this technology is the Nexus S.[26]

On January 25, 2011, Bloomberg published a report stating that Apple was actively pursuing development of a mobile payment system employing NFC. New generations of iPhone, iPod and iPad products would reportedly be equipped with NFC capability which would enable small-scale monetary transactions.[27]

Current trials

Europe

North America

Asia and Oceania

Latin America

Middle East

See also

Notes

  1. ^ C. Patauner et al. [1] High Speed RFID/NFC at the Frequency of 13.56 MHz
  2. ^ a b "NFC-enabled mobile phones – the future of the check-in process". Check-In News, Analysis and Event.
  3. ^ "downloads". Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  4. ^ ""la Caixa", Telefónica and Visa complete the first mobile shopping experience in Spain". http://saladeprensa.telefonica.com. Retrieved 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Ecma International: Standard ECMA-340, Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-1), December 2004
  6. ^ Ecma International: Standard ECMA-352, Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol –2 (NFCIP-2), December 2003
  7. ^ Mobiles hope to be 'smart wallet', BBC News Online, 21 November 2006
  8. ^ GSMA Publishes White Paper On Near Field Communications (NFC), GSM Association, 13 February 2007
  9. ^ GSM Association Aims For Global Point Of Sale Purchases by Mobile Phone, GSM Association, 13 February 2007
  10. ^ Momentum Builds Around GSMA's Pay-Buy Mobile Project, GSM Association, 25 April 2007
  11. ^ Ernst Haselsteiner, Klemens Breitfuß: Template:PDFlink, Philips Semiconductors, Printed handout of Workshop on RFID Security RFIDSec 06, July 2006
  12. ^ Gerhard P. Hancke Eavesdropping Attacks on High-Frequency RFID Tokens. 4th Workshop on RFID Security (RFIDsec'08), pp 100--113, July 2008
  13. ^ Gerhard P. Hancke:A practical relay attack on ISO/IEC 14443 proximity cards, February 2005.
  14. ^ Timo Kasper et al. 2007
  15. ^ "Nokia Europe - Nokia C7-00 touch screen phone – Technical specifications". Europe.nokia.com. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  16. ^ [2][dead link]
  17. ^ Nokia confirms cancellation of planned 6216 SWP NFC phone, Near Field Communications World, 18 February 2010
  18. ^ "Nokia Europe - Nokia 6212 classic". Europe.nokia.com. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  19. ^ a b c "GSMA Pay-Buy-Mobile White Paper 11-07 Final" (PDF). Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  20. ^ a b c d "Near Field Communication - NFC Research Lab: Devices". Nfc-research.at. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  21. ^ Samsung adds NFC to bestselling Tocco Lite/Star/Player One/Avila, Near Field Communications World, 17 February 2010
  22. ^ "Samsung and Philips to show off protoype NFC phone at 3GSM". MobileMentalism. 2006-02-11. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  23. ^ Sagem Cosyphone with NFC technology is perfect for granny and gramps, MobileCrunch, 15 February 2010
  24. ^ Google Nexus S Phone Details, "Google Phone Gallery", 6 December 2010
  25. ^ Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt. "A Conversation with Eric Schmidt on Android phones". youtube.com. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  26. ^ "Nexus Features". Google. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  27. ^ Apple plans service that lets iPhone users pay with headsets
  28. ^ Austrian University Begins NFC Trial, RFID Journal, November 28, 2006
  29. ^ France Télécom[dead link]
  30. ^ First in France: Axalto and Bouygues Telecom integrate Navigo Travelcard into mobile phone, Contactless News, October 26, 2005
  31. ^ France to Host First EMV Contactless Mobile Commerce Pilot, NFC Forum, 6 November 2006
  32. ^ Template:Fr icon SFR partenaire du projet de paiement mobile sans contact du CIC, Génération Nouvelles Téchnologies, 2 February 2007
  33. ^ Template:Fr icon Voyager à Grenoble en toute simplicité grâce à son mobile, Bouygues Télécom, 12 February 2007
  34. ^ Orange Attempts To Kick-Start NFC Market With Announcement Of Rollout Plans, Card Technology, 19 July 2007
  35. ^ Over-The-Air provisioning of Calypso compliant ticketing application into new generation SWP SIM card, PR, November 07, 2007
  36. ^ Template:Fr icon Duex nouveaux adhérents à Pégasus, Mobile Media magazine, 21 March 2007
  37. ^ In the Europewide SmartTouch project, NFC technology is successfully piloted by the City of Oulu, Finland, Innovations Report, 29 November 2006
  38. ^ New easy-to-use and safe NFC-enabled services from Elisa, Elisa, 21 May 2007
  39. ^ Distributes Mobile Payment Wallet Over-The-Air,Press release, 28 May 2008
  40. ^ Telenor and Cominor tests NFC ticketing in the city of Tromsø, Norway, Press release, 2 February 2009
  41. ^ Template:Pl icon W Polsce już można "płacić komórką", Dziennik Internautów, 11 September 2007
  42. ^ http://engl.mosmetro.ru/pages/page_1.php?id_page=56&id_text=956
  43. ^ TeliaSonera and Västtrafik tests new mobile technology in Gothenburg, Press release, 8 October 2008
  44. ^ Turkey plans multi-bank, multi-operator NFC trial, Press release, 24 October 2008
  45. ^ "Nokia NFC Technology Improving the Delivery of Care in the Home - nfc, near field communications, rfid". Free-press-release.com. 2007-12-14. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  46. ^ British Football Club Launches NFC Trial, Card Technology, 30 August 2006
  47. ^ O2 trials one off the wrist for VIP access, The Register, 5 June 2007
  48. ^ "Smart posters show passengers the way". Transport for London. 2007-08-22. Archived from the original on 2010-11-12.
  49. ^ Debit cards post-2009, Barclays,18 April 2009
  50. ^ "Montreal picks Oberthur for contactless transit ticketing system • NFC World". Nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com. 2009-09-24. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  51. ^ Collins, Hugh (2010-10-14). "Bank of America, Visa to Test Smartphone Payment Program". DailyFinance. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  52. ^ NFC Payment Trial Planned For Australia In Early 2008, Card Technology, 30 August 2007
  53. ^ JCB Collaborates with CASSIS International in an Experiment to Test OTA Services for NFC Mobile Payment, JCB, 2008-02-21
  54. ^ KTF and GSMA Global M-Payment Service started with SIM based NFC handset , GSMA, Nov 13, 2007
  55. ^ Philips and SKT join forces to simplify NFC development around the world, NXP, May 17, 2006
  56. ^ Taiwanese Telco To Test New NFC Phone, Card Technology, 29 August 2007
  57. ^ Mos Burger Outgoing Using NFC Phone Debit Campus Card, Chinese Culture University, 6 April 2010
  58. ^ "Singapore to start NFC trials". ZDnet Asia. 2007-09-04. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  59. ^ ACTion newsletter, August 2005, ACT Canada, August 30, 2005
  60. ^ Dubai First and Du to run Middle East's first NFC payments trial, Near Field Communications World 19 May 2009

References

Standards

Industrial Information

Research

Articles

Technical papers

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