NFC

Near Field Communication (NFC)

“Tap n Go”

“Keep it Secure & Private”

         

  

1. INTRODUCTION:

·         Your smartphones are doing almost everything for you but still your wallet is filled with so many credit, debit, membership, travel, rewards and identity cards.

·         What if your one smartphone is capable of doing the same job done by so many cards, to make all payments, to gain access, for identification and as a travel card too?

·         Yes, it is possible and the technology playing behind this possibility is Near Field Communication (NFC).:

2.NFC Overview:

·         Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging wireless technology that is designed to facilitate secure, short-range communication between electronic devices such as mobile phones, personal data assistants (PDAs), computers and payment terminals.

·         Communication is possible between two active NFC devices as well as between an active NFC device and a passive NFC “tag“.

·         NFC tags currently offer between 96 and 4,096 bytes of memory

3. NFC Tags:

·         NFC  tag is an electronic chip that contains some particular information associated with it.

·         With these  tags, we have an electronic reader which generates the magnetic field.

·         When we bring this tag closer to this magnetic field, the magnetic field induces electricity within the tag

4.  EVOLUTION OF NFC TECHNOLOGY:

·         NFC Forum was formed by Nokia, Philips, Sony,to set standards for NFC .

·         Every NFC enabled device will have “N-Mark” trademark ,developed by NFC Forum. N MARK TRADEMARK

·         First mobile phone( nokia 6131) with NFC released by NOKIA.

·         The first android handset which supports NFC technology is SAMSUNG NEXUS S.Also the devices which are starting from 2.3 version(gingerbread) Supports the NFC technology.

5. WORKING PRINCIPLE:

·         Near field communication is based on RFID technology that uses magnetic field  induction between the two electronic devices in close proximity.

A.  NFC One Way Communication:

·         If I have an active NFC device, as soon as I send a signal to NFC chip, current flows and a magnetic field is generated.

·         This magnetic field induces electricity in the closely placed passive NFC tag.

·         It creates a radio field. The radio field generated by tag interacts with the magnetic field generated by active device.

·         The chip inside the active device decodes the radio field to get the information in passive tag.

·         Two powered devices can also participate in this one way communication, similarly as active RFID tags.

B. NFC Two Way Communication:

·         There should be two powered devices involved in this communication.

·         When a device sends information, it becomes active and while receiving, it behaves as a passive device. So both devices act as active as well as passive while exchanging information.

·         An active NFC device can communicate to single target at a time that means broadcasting of messages to multiple targets over NFC is not possible.

6. MODES OF OPERATION:

A.  Active mode:  In Active mode, both devices with NFC chip generates an electromagnetic field and exchange data.

B.  Passive mode: In Passive mode, there is only one active device and the other uses that field to exchange information with the help of an NFC tag.An NFC tag is an Integrated Circuit containing the data. 

Figure 1. shows the ranges of global wireless connections in meters and their connection speeds in bites

7. HOW TO USE THE NFC TECHNOLOGY:

Google Wallet is the most famous application which is enabling you to do that.

They store your card details, your personal identification details and other related details as your reward points, limits etc.

Whenever you want to use your NFC supported smartphone to do any of the above mentioned tasks, you just need to place it near the NFC reader, start the application and all the necessary information will be transferred from your phone to the reader and yeah, now you are living with a lighter wallet.

8. APPLICATIONS OF NFC:

NFC applications can be split into the following three basic categories.

A. Touch and Go: access control or transport/event ticketing, where the user needs only to bring the device storing the ticket or access code close to the reader

Ex: for picking up an Internet URL from a smart label on a poster.

B. Touch and Confirm: mobile payment where the user has to confirm the interaction by entering a password or just accepting the transaction.

                 Ex: The screenshot from a mobile device showing the confirmation message

C. Touch and Connect: Linking two NFC-enabled devices to enable peer  to peer  transfer of data.

                 Ex: as downloading music, exchanging images 

or synchronizing address books. Data transfer via NFC .

9. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES[BLUETOOTH & WI-FI]:

·         Although we have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with a wider range of working distance, NFC is a short range favorite.

·         You need pairing for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. NFC requires no pairing.

·         It takes lessthan 0.2 seconds to establish a connection

·         Power consumption during reading the data is under 15mA.

·         NFC devices support data transmission speed between 106 kilobits per second and 424 kilobits           per second. Currently used data rates are  106, 212 and 424 kilo bits per second.

·         NFC is compatible with existing passive RFID infrastructures but  Bluetooth can not.

·         All three allow wireless communication and data exchange between digital devices like smartphones. Yet near field communication utilizes electromagnetic radio fields while technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi focus on radio transmissions instead.

·         Allows communication both between two powered and passive devices

·         It supports one way as well as two way communications between devices.

·         NFC consumes low power similarly as Bluetooth v4.0 low energy protocol but consumes more if used with one unpowered device

·         NFC’s maximum data transfer rate is slower than that of Bluetooth v2.1.

·         The data transfer rate is very less compared to blue tooth and other wireless communications.

10 . COMPANIES INVOLVED WITH NFC:

·         Nokia,Philips and Sony

·         Credit cards

·         Chip makers

11. NFC  enabled smart phones:

·         Samsung:Nexus S,Galaxy S2,Galaxy note,Wave 578

·         Blackberry:Bold 9790,9900,9930

·         Htc:Amage 4G

·         Nokia:C7,700,701,603,N9.

12.  C0NCLUSION:

·         Providing secure channel will avoid the draw backs such as evesdropping or data modification.

·         Even though NFC have the shortest range among radio frequency technologies, combining them with existing technologies like

·         Bluetooth or Infrared can increase its range of applications. 

12.CLOSING THOUGHT: