NFC - Near Field Communication Technology

1. NFC -NearFieldCommunicationTechnology Presented By LAKSHITA VIJ 07IT525

2. WHAT IS NFC • NFC, is one of the latest wireless communication technologies. As a short-range wireless connectivity technolog,NFC offers safe yet simple communication between electronic devices. • It enables exchange of data between devices over a distance of 4 cm or less. • NFC operates at 13.56 MHz and rates ranging from 106 kbit/s to 848 kbit/s.

3. How NFC Works • NFC is based on RFID technology that uses magnetic field induction between electronic devices in close proximity. • For two devices to communicate using NFC, one device must have an NFC reader/writer and one must have an NFC tag. The tag is essentially an integrated circuit containing data, connected to an antenna, that can be read or written by the reader.

4. It works in 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.

5. The technology is a simple extension of the ISO/IEC14443 proximity-card standard(contactless card, RFID) that combines the interface of a smartcard and a reader into a single device. • An NFC device can communicate with both existing ISO/IEC14443 smartcards and readers, as well as with other NFC devices, and is thereby compatible with contactless infrastructure already in use for public transportation and payment. • NFC is primarily aimed at usage in mobile phones. By 2013, one in five phones will have NFC (predicted by Juniper Research). • Japan is early adopter of NFC.

6. NFC employs two different coding 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 matches the transmitted signal's modulated frequency band.

7. Uses and Applications There are currently three main uses of 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.

8. 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. • Mobile payment • 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. • Electronic ticketing • Electronic money • Travel cards • Identity documents

10. Mobile commerce • Electronic keys: replacements for physical car keys, house/office keys, hotel room keys, etc. • NFC can be used to configure and initiate other wireless network connections such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Ultra-wideband. • 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 eCL0WNwas released which allows you to read and copy the chip content of biometric passports.

11. Comparison with Bluetooth • 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).

12. 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.

13. Security • Eavesdropping • Data Modification • Relay Attack • Lost Property • Walk Off

14. Future Devices and Use • On November 15, 2010 Eric Schmidtannounced at the Web 2.0 Summit that the Android will support NFC starting from version 2.3 ("Gingerbread"). The first Android handset which supports this technology is the Nexus S. • 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. • Near Field Communications World stated on March 21, 2011 that Sonim Technologies will add NFC to its XP3300 Force device later this year. 

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