Near Field Communication (NFC)

Opportunities & Standards

Narada Warakagoda Senior Research Scientist

NFC Technology
Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standards-based short-range wireless connectivity technology for electronic devices
A set of standards Range typically upto 10cm Frequency 13.56 MHz Data rates 106,212, 424 Kbit/s No battery required

Mobile NFC
Attach an NFC module to the mobile
peer-to-peer mode : Use the mobile to interact with another mobile
Phone to phone transactions

reader/writer mode :Use the mobile to read/write external tags

Mobile as a POS terminal

card emulation mode :Use the mobile as a tag for external readers
Mobile as a payment card

Mobile as a payment card, why?

Plastic card
Secure element + NFC link

Bank
OTA

NFC enabled mobile

Secure Element (SIM/UICC card) Co-operating application processor and a (G)UI OTA (Over The Air) channel

GUI

Application Processor

Payment application

NFC

Mobile NFC payment actors

Basically a marriage between banks end MNOs
Several banks and MNOs exist in a given market
A facilitator will simplify the relationships TSM (trusted service manager) role is proposed

Bank1

Bank2

Bank3

MNO1

MNO2

MNO3

Other Service providers

TSM

user

Mobile NFC payments architecture

Client Side Server Side

MMI

Application Processor

5
OTA

MNO OTA server

TSM platform

3 4
Mobile Device

UICC 2
NFC Module

Bank card management system

NFC Reader infrastructure

NFC

Bank payment processing system

NFC Standards

NFC module

NFC Reader

ISO 14443 (Contactless Integrated circuit cards,proximity cards)

Standardises physical characteristics, radio interface, initialization/anticollision & transmission protocols Type A & B depending on radio interface

ISO/IEC 15693 (Contactless Integrated circuit cards, vicinity cards)

RFID item tracking

ISO/IEC 18092 or ECMA 340 (Near Field Communication interface and protocol, NFCIP-1)
Standarises RF field/signal interface, initialisation/anti-collision, transport procols Active and passive RF modes, peer-to-peer mode Several data rates

ECMA 352 or ISO 21481 (NFCIP-2)

Specifies operating mode selection (ISO 14443, 15693 or NFCIP-1)

NFC standards

NFC module

NFC Reader

NFC Interface and Protocol (NFCIP -2)

ISO 21481
(Mode switching)

Contactless Vicinity Cards (RFID)

ISO/IEC 15693

Contactless Proximity cards

ISO/IEC 14443

NFC Interface and protocol (NFCIP-1)

ISO/IEC 18092

Type A

Type B

known Implementations

Mifare

Calypso

Felica

High level NFC standards

NFC Forum
Builds on ISO/IEC standards

NFC module

NFC Reader

Peer-to-Peer Mode

Card Emulation mode

Read-Write mode

NDEF NDEF exchange ? RTD LLCP Tag Types

NFC forum scope

ISO/IEC Standards

UICC-NFC module Interface

UICC

NFC module

ETSI TS 102 613: Single Wire Protocol (SWP)

A fresh standard ETSI (approved November 2007) Implementations (mobile handset & UICC) are beginning to emerge SWP specifies only hardware layer & an overlay software standard is necessary

ETSI TS 102 622: UICC-Contactless Front-end interface, Host Controller Interface (HCI)
Provides a software (API) standard on top of SWP. This standard is very fresh (approved September 2008) Implementations (mobile handset & UICC) are yet to emerge

Application processor UICC interface Hardware/low level standards

3GPP TS 11.11 SIM-ME interface/ETSI TS 102.221 UICC-Terminal Interface
ISO 7816 based communication Serial, low speed (9600 bps) Physical (hardware) & Logical (API) Implementation Widespread UICC Appl. processor

ETSI TS 102 600 Smart Cards: UICC-Terminal interface, Characterustics of the USB interface
Fresh specification
Also known as high speec interface Speeds upto 12 Mbps Implementations yet to emerge

Application processor UICC interface Software/high level standards

3GPP TS 11.14 SIM application toolkit /ETSI TS 122.038 USIM application toolkit/ETSI TS 102.223 (Card Application Toolkit)
Enables UICC to take initiative (proactive) Implementations widespread, but full implementation on the terminal side is rare Boring text based MMI

JSR 177 Security and Trust services API for J2ME

Initiative from application processor (Midlets) Implementations reasonably widespread Appl. processor

OMA SmartCard Web Server (SCWS)

Initiative from a browser on the phone
Implementation is not widespread Rich graphical MMI is possible

UICC

Application Processor- NFC Module interface

No widely agreed hardware standard (I2C, USB etc.)
Probably not so important for service providers since the terminal manufacturer integrates NFC module in the mobile

NFC Forums work on NCI (NFC Controller Interface)

standardisation of APIs for this interface Ongoing work!

JSR 257 Contactless communication API for J2ME

specifies high level APIs for this interface Nokia has already implemented it on 6131_NFC Appl. processor

NFC module

OTA Standards/Technologies
GlobalPlatform
Initiative from the financial industry

OTA server

UICC

Security domain creation and manipulation on the UICC

Secure channel protocols (SCP) Commands for Secure application download/install/delete/lock etc.

3GPP TS 03.48/ ETSI TS 102.225/226

Remote APDU structure for UICC based applications (push data directly to the UICC from a remote server) Aligned with Global Platform commands

Midlet proxy method

Use a midlet in the mobile to proxy communication between the server and the UICC.

Conclusion
Mobile NFC opens up new opportunities in payment and banking 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!

Thank you!

NFC, hype or reality

NFC handsets
Few models already in market
Nokia 6131, Samsung x700
millions
NFC enabled handsets 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Cellular handsets

Motorola, LG, Benq etc. have announced commitment to NFC 500 million units by 2011 Cost coming down as the volume grows

NFC tags
List price of NFC tags is as low as 0.16 $.

Source: ABI Research, 2006

Revenue Streams Example NFC Value Chain - Payment

user

MNO

Application Provider/ Trusted Services Manager

Service Provider/ Credit Card issuer/ Acquirer

Merchant

End user mobile tariffs for mobile network transport and NFC enabled phones and (U)SIM cards (postpaid subscription or prepaid)*

e.g. NFC transaction fees or other rental fees for provisioning of SIM card space and NFC security keys

e.g. fees for application provisioning, personalisation, downloading, service life cycle management

e.g. pays the merchant for purchased goods via the NFC credit card application e.g. pays the monthly credit card bill* Credit card clearing for the sold goods*

* Out of scope of GSMA project

NFC module- Reader interface

ISO 14443 (Contactless Integrated circuit cards,proximity cards)
Stanadises physical characteristics, radio interface, initialization/anticollision & transmission protocols Type A (Mifare) & B (Calypso) depending on radio interface

ISO/IEC 15693 (Contactless Integrated circuit cards, vicinity cards)

RFID item tracking

ISO/IEC 18092 or ECMA 340 (Near Field Communication interface and protocol, NFCIP-1)
Standarises RF field/signal interface, initialisation/anti-collision, transport procols Active and passive RF modes Several data rates

ECMA 352 or ISO 21481 (NFCIP-2)

Specifies operating mode selection (ISO 14443, 15693 or NFCIP-1)

NFC module- Reader interface

Several problems
Popular proprietary implementations (Mifare, Felica) does not fully comply with standards. Multi-technology mode detection (eg. Mifare vs. Felica) capability may be required Contactless standards have been developed for plastic cards, not for mobile phones. (load effects are different) Power off mode may not work Existing reader infrastructure has implicit application selection & therefore multi applications on a mobile may be a problem

NFC Client side issues

Lack/cost of NFC mobile phones Compatibility with existing contactless infrastructure Cost of high memory, multi-application UICC cards UICC-NFC module communication Powerful UICC-Handset communication Powerful UICC-server communication (BIP protocol not widespread implementations, SMS based communication is common)

NFC Forum standards

NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF)
The basic format (bit level) in which data are stored in NFC tags (or devices). NDEF Record_1 NDEF_Record_2 NDEF_Record_3

NDEF message

Record Type Definition (RTD) specification

High level definition of different types of NDEF records (i.e. information and action) Text, URI, Smart Poster

Tag type technical specification

Tags are categorized into four main groups.

Peer-to-peer mode
Bi-directional data exchange type of applications Example: Secure Bluetooth pairing configuration

Reader/Writer mode
Usually Service discovery type of applications
E.g: A poster with an NFC tag When touched by NFC phone a web page is opened

But there are interesting payment applications as well

E.g: Mobile as a POS terminal

Card emulation mode

This is arguably the most interesting mode

Several different applications including payments
Use Case Description

Mobile Payment
Mobile Ticketing Physical Access Logical Access Loyalty Application Health Care Application Digital Rights Management Automotive

mobile as payment card

Public Transport & Events Physical entry card replacement Access to VPNs, RSA token replacement Loyalty card replacement Personal health records/e-health card Local digital rights storage interactive information services, remote car diagnosis services, emergency calls, personal settings