Inte rnatio nal Jo urnal o f Sc ie ntific & Eng inee ring Re se arc h, Vo lume 3, Issue 2, February -2012 1
ISS N 2229-5518
Literature Survey on NFC, Applications and
Controller
Shyamal Pampattiwar
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During the last decade, wireless technology has grown significantly offering many applications including payment, ticketing and access control. Especially Near Field Communication(NFC) has become widely available on the market offering convenient services by simply touching NFC enabled objects in the proximity with commodity mobile phones.
In NFC, the communication occurs when two NFC
compatible devices are brought together less than four centimeters, or simply by touching themselves. It operates at
13.56 MHz and can transfer data up to 424 Kbits per second [1]. In an NFC model two devices are involved in the communication, which are called initiator and target. Initiator is an active NFC device which is responsible for starting the communication. Also it has an embedded energy component whereas target can be either a tag, RFID card or an NFC device which responses the initiator’s requests [2].
One of the advantages of NFC technology is that mobile devices can be used both as an information storage or an NFC reader. They can read information from NFC tags and display that information on the screen with an ability to make additional processing. Also they can be used as a digital storage e.g. storing credit card information.
Other most important advantages of NFC technology include;
• The technology is compatible with existing RFID
structures, existing RFID tags and contactless smart cards[1].
• It is easy to use and familiar to people because users
don’t need to have any knowledge about the technology. All a user has to do is to start communication by bringi ng two devices together [3].
• The transmission range is so short that, when the user
separates two devices, the communication is cut. This brings inherent security. If there isn’t any other device close, there is no other communication.
Table 1 presents the applications examined. The first column indicates which NFC Mode underpins the
application(CE=CardEmulation Mode,R/W=Reader/Writer
Mode, P2P=Peer-to-peer Mode)[1].
Table 1: NFC Applications surveyed
*: CE=Card Emu lation Mode, R/W= Read/Write Mode, P2 P =Peer to Peer Mode.
Ther e ar e sever al short r ange communication technologies such as RFID, Bluetooth, Bluetooth ULP (Ultr a low pow er, know n also as a W ibr ee), Zigbee and Ir DA w hich pr ovide flexible communication for several applications depending on w hich kind of communication is r equir ed. Fr om these technologies,RFID is one o f the pr omising technologies to be used w ith a human oper ator[6].
How NFC suits for differ ent applications?
A.Suitability of NFC for industrial applications:
The benefits of NFC technology for industrial applications can be listed as follows:
� NFC enables intuitive, easy-to-use touch-based communication and interaction between two devices.
� Communication set-up latency with NFC is
typically some hundreds of milliseconds, whereas with Bluetooth it is typically several seconds.
� In wireless sensor applications, NFC enables
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Inte rnatio nal Jo urnal o f Sc ie ntific & Eng inee ring Re se arc h Vo lume 3, Issue 2, Fe bruary -2012 2
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longer lifetime of the sensor battery, or even batteryless implementation of the sensor.
B.Mobile Payment Services
Near Field Communication (NFC), is a relatively new technology that allows the handset to emulate both a contactless card and a contactless reader. Its ease of use when conducting short range communication and compatibility with existing contactless payment systems are some reasons why it is seen as a key enabling technology for mobile payment services.
C.NFC Ticketing
In 2006 the Roman public transportation company ATAC introduced the use of mTickets via SMS [10]. In order to access the service, the user had to perform a subscription to his mobile network operator; next the user has only to send a text message (with a particular syntax) to the service center. The network operator will reply with another text message indicating the ticket type, validity time and other related information. This system has some weak spots, especially regarding the cognitive load of the user: some people, in fact, have some difficulty in drafting an SMS and must also have the burden of remembering. the syntax of the text itself; moreover there are problems concerning security issues. The NFC technology can be a valid aid to overcome these problems thanks to its ease of use and to its higher security level
implementation
When defining the NFC-based services and applications, only a part of the problems are technology-related. In order to implement the services it is very important to work out the necessary and suitable business models and processes [9]. Hence B Benyo at.all suggest in their paper a generalized approach for NFC application development. The framework developed according to the generalized approach provides not only the opportunity to create a new skin for the already existing application, but also makes possible to rapidly implement the business logic and the user interface.
ISO-IEC Protocol
ISO/IEC 14443 is one of a series of International Standards describing the parameters for identification cards as defined in ISO/IEC 7810, and the use of such cards for international interchange. This part of ISO/IEC 14443 describes polling for proximity cards entering the fiel d of a proximity coupling device, the byte format and framing, the initial Request and Answer to Request command content, methods to detect and communicate with one proximity card among several proximity cards (anti-collision) and other parameters required to initialize communications between a proximity card and a proximity coupling device. Protocols and commands used by higher layers and by applications and which are used after the initial phase are described in ISO/IEC
14443-4.
A. Technical aspects of challenging NFC based service
Implementation
NFC-based solutions collaborating with existing contactless and smart card standards have still deficiencies[5].Many problems can be derived from technical and technological barriers :
1) NFC combined with mobile communication has great per spective. Never theless, mobile NFC applications ar e handset specific. This r estriction r equir es fr om the ser vice providers – mobile operators – to develop, test and maintain a unique application for each NFC enabled device. To make the issue even more difficult it is possible that also network specific issues are adding to the complexity and variety of applications. In order to make the NFC technology more handset independent a neutral technology platform needs to be used that can hide specifics of the various mobile devices.
2) The recently elaborated operating models are supporting single application business models. It means that on the chip (which stores the business application), there is only one application running, although technologically it would be possible to host multiple
(6-10) applications, service profiles simultaneously. There are
multiple reasons of this situation
B. Business aspect of challenging NFC based service
ISO/IEC 14443 is intended to allow operation of
proximity cards in the presence of other contact less cards conforming to ISO/IEC 10536 and ISO/IEC 15693.
ISO 18000:
Parameters for Air Interface communications at
13.56Mhz determines physical layer, Anti collision system and protocol values for 13.56Mhz RFID systems for item identification. this standard has 2 MODES of operation, intended to address different applications[12].
NFC-DEP Protocol
ISO 18092(NFCIP-1) or ECMA 340
This Standard defines communication modes for Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-1) using in- ductive coupled devices operating at the centre frequency of
13,56 MHz for interconnection of computer peripherals. It also defines both the Active and the Passive communication modes
of Near Field Communication Interface and Protocol (NFCIP-
1) to realize a communication network using Near Field
Communication devices for networked products and also for
consumer equipment. The Standard specifies, in particular, modulation schemes, coding, transfer speeds, and frame for- mat of the RF interface, as well as initialization schemes and conditions required for data collision control during initializa- tion. Furthermore, this ECMA Standard defines a transport protocol including protocol activation and data exchange me-
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thods.
Information interchange between systems also .
requires, at a minimum, agreement between the interchange
parties upon the interchange codes and the data structure.
All NFCIP-1 devices shall have communication capability on 106 kbps and may switch to another transfer speed or stay at 106 kbps. All NFCIP-1 devices shall have communication capability on 212 kbps and may switch to another transfer speed or stay at 212 kbps. All NFCIP -1 devices shall have communication capabilities on 424 kbps and may switch to another transfer speed or stay at 424 kbps[12].
The mode (Active or Passive) shall not be changed during one transaction until the deactivation of the Target or removal of the Target, even though the transfer speed of Initiator to Target and the transfer speed of the Target to the Initiator may not be the same. The change of transfer speed during one transaction may be performed by a parameter change procedure.
ISO 15963
This International Standard describes numbering systems that are available for the identification of RF tags.
The unique ID can be used
⎯ for the traceability of the integrated circuit itself for quality
control in its manufacturing process,
⎯ for the traceability of the RF tag during its manufacturing
process and along its lifetime,
⎯ for the completion of the reading in a multi -antenna
configuration,
⎯ by the anti-collision mechanism to inventory multiple tags
in the reader’s field of view.
The objective of proposed thesis is to implement a Digital IP(Intellectual Property) for an NFC Controller by using the existing protocol in an efficient way to provide higher security with due considerations in reduction of connection establish- ment time which will be useful in different applications where higher security is expected
Fig: Block Diagram of proposed w ork
In summary, Near Field Communication is an efficient
technology for communications with short ranges. It offers an intuitive and simple way to transfer data between electronic devices. A significant advantages of this technique is the compatibility with existing RFID infrastructures. Additionally, it would bring benefits to the setup of longer-range wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth.
Mobile NFC opens up new opportunities in payment and
banking. The Standards are extremely important because this is an area where many different actors (MNOs, banks, terminal producers, UICC producers ….) are involved. Most of the crucial standards are in place, but implementation of standards are not sufficiently widespread. It may take another year or two before mobile NFC will take off.
[1] Kerem OK, Vedat COSKUN, Mehmet N. AYDIN, and Busra OZD E- NIZCI,‖Current Benefits and Future Directions of NFC Services‖ proc. 2010 International Conference on Education and Management Technology ICEMT 2010
[2] Esko Strömmer,Juha Pärkkä, Arto,Ilkka \Korhonen Ylisaukko-
oja,‖Application of Near Field Communication for Health Monitor- ing in Daily Life‖,Proceedings of the 28th IEEE EMBS Annual In- ternational Conference
[3] Stefano Levialdi Ghìron and Serena Sposato,―NFC Ticketing: a Prot o- type and Usability test of an NFC-based Virtual Ticketingapplica- tion‖,First International Workshop on Near Field Communication,
2009.
[4] Rainer Steffen, Jörg Preißinger, and Tobias Schöllermann,‖Near Field Communication (NFC) in an Automotive Environment‖, Second In- ternational Workshop on Near Field Communication.
[5] B.Benyó, B. Sódor, G. Fördős, L. Kovács and A.Vilmos,―A genera-
lized approach for NFC application development",Second Interna- tional Workshop on Near Field Communication.
[6] Mikko Sallinen, Esko Strömmer and Arto Ylisaukko-oja ,"Application
Scenario for NFC:Mobile Tool for Industrial Worker",The Second In- ternational Conference on Sensor Technologies and Applications.
[7] Busra OZDENIZCI, Kerem OK, Vedat COSKUN and Mehmet
N.AYDIN,"Development of an Indoor Navigation System Using NFC Technology", Proc.Fourth International Conference on Information and Computing 2011.
[8] W. Chen, G.P. Hancke, K.E. Mayes ,Y. Lien and J-H. Chiu,"NFC Mo-
bile Transactions and Authentication based on GSM Network", Proc.Second International Workshop on Near Field Communication.
[9] T. W. C. Brown and T. Diakos,"ON THE DESIGN OF NFC ANTE N-
NAS FOR CONTACTLESS PAYMENT APPLIC A- TIONS",Proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP).
[10] Assa Abloy AB. (2008). Vingcard [Online]. Available
:http://www.vingcard.com/binary? id=66705
[11] Ecma International,―Near Field Communication- White Paper‖, 2005,
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Inte rnatio nal Jo urnal o f Sc ie ntific & Eng inee ring Re se arc h Vo lume 3, Issue 2, Fe bruary -2012 4
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Ecma/TC32TG19/2005/012, Available: http://www.ecma interna- tional.org/
[12] NFC Forum, http://www.nfc-forum.org/aboutnfc
Shyamal Pampattiwar
MTech 3rd Sem ( Microelectronics, VLSI and Embedded System ), Department of Electronics and communication
Email: shyamal.pamp@gmail.com
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