SREENIDHI INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

(An Autonomous Institution approved by UGC and Affiliated to JNTUH)

Yamnampet, Ghatkesar, RRDistrict, Hyderabad - 501301

A
Technical Literature Review& Seminar-I
On
NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION (NFC)

By
MOHAMMED MUSHARRAF KHAN (20311A05T0)
II YEAR-I SEMESTER
CSE-E

Co-ordinator Head of the department

DR. CH NIRANJAN KUMAR DR. ARUNA VARANASI
Professor Professor
 Department of Computer Science and Engineering
SREENIDHI INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(An Autonomous Institution approved by UGC and Affiliated to JNTUH)

Yamnampet, Ghatkesar, Hyderabad – 501301

Technical Paper Writing and Seminar

On

NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION

Roll No: 20311A05T0

Name: MOHAMMED MUSHARRAF KHAN

B Tech – II – I – Semester CSE - E

Date of Seminar: 02 NOVEMBER 2021

Name of the Coordinator: DR CH NIRANJAN KUMAR

 Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this technical report on “NEAR FIELD

COMMUNICATIOIN”, submitted by MOHAMMED MUSHARRAF KHAN

(20311A05T0), in the year 2022 in partial fulfilment of the academic year

requirements of Sreenidhi Institute of Science And Technology for the award of

the degree of Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science Engineering, is a

bonafide work that has been carried out by them as part of their Technical

presentation during Second Year First Semester.

This report has not been submitted to any other institute or university for
the award of any degree.

DR CH NIRANJAN KUMAR

HOD Signature with Stamp

 INDEX

S.NO. LIST OF CONTENTS PAGE NO

1 ABSTRACT 1-2

2 PRESENTATION SLIDES 3-9

3 BASE PAPER 10 - 26

4 REFERENCES 27
 ABSTRACT

Near Field Communication, NFC- is one of the latest short range wireless

communication technologies. NFC provides safe communication between

electronic gadgets. NFC-enabled devices can just be pointed or touched by the

users of their devices to other NFC-enabled devices to communicate with

them. With NFC technology, communication is established when an NFC-

compatible device is brought within a few centimetres of another i.e. around

20 cm theoretically (4cm is practical). The immense benefit of the short

transmission range is that it prevents eavesdropping on NFC- enabled dealings.

NFC technology enables several innovative usage scenarios for mobile devices.

NFC technology works on the basis of RFID technology which uses magnetic

field induction to commence communication between electronic devices in close

vicinity. NFC operates at 13.56MHz and has 424kbps maximum data

transfer rate. NFC is complementary to Bluetooth and 802.11 with their long

distance capabilities. In card emulation mode NFC devices can offer

contactless/wireless smart card standard. This technology enables smart

phones to replace traditional plastic cards for the purpose of ticketing,

payment, etc. Sharing (share files between phones), service discovery i.e. get

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information by touching smart phones etc. are other possible applications of

NFC using smart phones.

This paper provides an overview of NFC technology in a detailed manner

including working principle, transmission details, protocols and standards,

application scenarios, future market, security standards and vendor’s chipsets

which are available for this standard. This comprehensive survey should serve

as a useful guide for students, researchers and academicians who are interested in

NFC Technology and its applications.

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PRESENTATION SLIDES

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 Near Field Communication (NFC)
Base Paper

1. INTRODUCTION :

Nowadays the increasing mobility of devices provided by mobile communications

has become an important feature in the emerging technical world. Before the

introduction of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, the mobile

phones already had several types of communication options with the external

environment .When the mobile phones were introduced, the primary need was to

setup voice communication, it was primarily provided by Global System for

Mobiles (GSM) which has other services such as SMS, MMS and even internet

access. Later Bluetooth technology was introduced that connects peripherals with

computing devices including mobile phones .In present days, a new

communication technology known as NFC is becoming popular in mobile smart

phones. This technology needs two NFC compatible devices placed very near to

each other (less than 4cm) in order to communicate. NFC operates at 13.56

MHz and can transmit information up to a maximum rate of 424 Kbits per

second . In an NFC communication, two devices are needed. First device is called

the initiator which is an active device and is responsible for starting the

communication, whereas second device is called the target and responds to

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the initiator’s requests. The target device may be active or passive. The

communication starts when the active device gets close to the target and

generates a 13.56 MHz magnetic field and powers the target device(See Figure

1).The NFC technology works via magnetic field induction and operates on an

unlicensed radio frequency band. Also it includes an embedded energy source

component whereas the target can be a RFID card, tag or an NFC device which

gives the reply to initiator’s request. The remaining part of this paper is structured

as follows. Section II gives a clear idea about NFC hand over, working principle

and data transmission. Section III discusses about NFC protocols and

standards. Section IV discusses about the various NFC operation modes. In

Section V we give an overview of NFC security including the potential

threats in NFC technology and solutions. In Section VI we discuss about the

worldwide NFC application. Section VII covers NFC setup and Section VIII

talks about NFC vendors and manufacturers.

Figure 1: NFC Enabled Phone 11

2. NFC HANDOVER, WORKING PRINCIPLE & DATA TRANSMISSION :

In NFC technology the communication is initiated with NFC but later the

transmission is done by some other technologies such as Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. The two

handover mechanisms specified by NFC forum are negotiated handover and static

handover. In the first case, the initiator (handover requester) sends a handover

request to target device (handover selector) which might support multiple carriers

such as Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. Target device sends a response to the requester, i.e.

initiator (see Figure 2). NFC requester device can select the best possible carrier

that is compatible with both devices when it receives the response message. In

static hand over method, handover selector device does not comprise an NFC

Forum device but has a NFC Forum tag attached which gives memory space that

can be read or written.The main advantage of NFC over Bluetooth is that it

consumes far less power and doesn't require pairing but the highest data transfer

rate of NFC (424 Kbit/s) is lesser than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s).

Figure 2: NFC Handover

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NFC uses an inductive coupling technique comparable to the transformer principle

i.e. the magnetic near-field of two conductor coils is used to pair the initiator

(Polling) device and target (Listener) device (See Figure 3). In this pairing of the

coils of initiator and target, a passive listening device also affects the active polling

device. A variation in the impedance of the listening device results in an amplitude

or phase changes to the antenna voltage of the polling device, detected by the

polling device.

Figure 3: NFC Transmission

3. NFC PROTOCOLS AND STANDARDS :

The NFC protocol needs standardization in order to be accepted by the industry for

commercialization and provide for compatibility between the devices produced by

different vendors. Standardization means keeping the specifications open and

stable, and accessible for everyone, also facilitating the protocol analysis and

device adaptation for various purposes. The standards are published by ECMA

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International and ETSI standards. The three standards ISO/IEC 14443 A, ISO/IEC

14443 B and JIS X6319-4 are RFID standards which have been prompted by

different companies (NXP, Infineon and Sony).

• ISO-IEC Protocol :

ISO/IEC 14443 is a series of international standards used for international

interchange that describes the parameters for identification cards as described in

ISO/IEC 7810. It also gives a detailed information about polling for proximity

cards into the field of a nearest coupling device, the initial request and reply

command content, techniques to sense and communicate with one proximity card

amongst several proximity cards and other parameters necessary to initialize

communications between a proximity pairing device which can be the initiator or

target and a proximity card. Protocols used by upper layers and by applications

which are used after the primary phase is detailed in ISO/IEC 14443-4.

•ISO 15963 :

This Standard gives information about the numbering systems that are accessible

for the recognition of RF tags used for the traceability of the IC and RF tag which

is used for the close evaluation in a multi-antenna configuration .

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• ISO 18000:

This standard has 2 modes of procedure, proposed to address diverse applications

• ISO 18092(NFCIP-1) or ECMA 340 :

This Standard describes active and passive communication modes for NFC

protocol and interface. This gives the specifications of coding, modulation

schemes, frame format, transfer speeds of the RF interface, initialization schemes

and surroundings required for data collision control through initialization.

4. NFC OPERATION MODES:

NFC technology defines two types of devices. One is initiator device and other is

target device. Initiator device is one who initiates the communication and controls

the data exchanges. Target device is the device who responds to the initiator

device. Active and Passive are the two operating modes of NFC . In active mode,

both the initiator and the target generate the RF signal on which the data is carried.

In passive mode, RF signal is generated only by the initiator, and target

communicates back to the initiator using a technique called load modulation. NFC

uses two types of coding mechanism to transfer data, they are Manchester and

Miller coding. In addition to the two operating modes, there are three operating

modes for device communication . These three modes depend on the application.

Figure 4 shows three operating modes of NFC technology standard.

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 Figure 4: NFC Operating Modes

4.1. Reader/Writer Mode :

In Reader/Writer mode of operation the application transfers data in NFC forum

defined message format. In this mode the NFC enabled mobile phone can perform

read/write operation on NFC tags. In Reader Mode, NFC initiator reads data from

the NFC tag where as in the writer mode, initiator writes data in to the tag. Itshould

be noted that Reader/Writer mode of communication is not secure. The

applications supported by this mode are :

• Smart Poster
• Remote Marketing
• Remote Shopping
• Social Networking
• Location based services

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4.2. Peer to Peer mode:

Peer to peer mode supports link level communication. It supports two NFC enabled

device to exchange information such as a text message, contact record or data of

any other kind. NFCIP-1 and LLCP are the two standardized options in peer to

peer mode. This mode of communication is secure. The applications supported by

this mode are the following:

• Exchanging Data
• Money Transfer
• Social Networking

4.3. Card Emulation Mode :

In card emulation mode, the NFC enabled mobile device acts as a contactless smart

card. The examples of smart card are debit card, credit card, access cards etc. Data

transfer in this mode is highly secure. This mode supports the following

applications:

• Payment
• Loyalty
• Ticketing
• Access control
• Identity Services

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5. NFC SECURITY :

5.1. Threats :

NFC applications such as contactless money payment demand a high level of

security. As NFC security has great importance, so it is to be a part of the basic

NFC technology structure. Possible threats associated with NFC are explained

below.

• Eavesdropping :

Eavesdropping is a common threat found in all wireless communication

technologies. NFC is also a wireless communication interface between two

entities. They use RF signals to communicate, so any equipment with an

antenna in the range can receive the signal. The attacker can extract the

information from the signal transmitted through experimentation and periodic

analysis processes. This is very dangerous in the case of money payments,

where the users use some secret password; the eavesdropper acquires this

information and can misuse it. It is very difficult to prevent eaves dropping as

the attacker who uses a very precise antenna can receive the signal even if the

signal strength is too weak. The only solution to eavesdropping is to use a

secure channel for communication.

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• Data Corruption and Manipulation :

In NFC, data is sent from sender to receiver wirelessly. There are some specific

formats for data to be sent, so that the receiver accepts and decodes it. The data

which is not in the correct format is rejected. Data corruption and manipulation

attack arises when an attacker in between corrupts or manipulates the data. The

attacker may change the data format or change the contents in it, so that the data

becomes useless or gets rejected as it reaches the receiver. For some coding

schemes this attack is possible. The solution for this attack is to use a secure

channel between the communicating parties.

• Man- in- the Middle attack :

Man in the middle attack is one step further to data corruption and manipulation

attack. In this attack a third party intercepts the communication between two

parties. The attacker acts as a relay between the sender and receiver and

forwards data (See Figure 5). The attacker can corrupt, alter, or discard the data

being sent. Man in the middle attack is very difficult to achieve in NFC links

and so it is not common. The solution for this attack is to use active-passive

communication mode.

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 Figure 5: Man in the middle attack

• NFC Worm :

NFC worm attack is found in NFC enabled phones. In this the PushRegistry

can be abused to intercept all URI NDEF messages. It is done by utilizing

the standardized NFC Java API. Push Registry helps the applications to

register themselves for handling some specific data like images.

• Solutions :

Establishing a secure channel between the sender and the receiver is the best

solution for eavesdropping, data corruption and manipulation attacks. As

NFC is having inherent protection against man in the middle attack, it is an

easy task to setup. A shared key can be obtained between sender and

receiver using Diffie–Hellman based on RSA or elliptical curve. This shared

key can be used to derive a symmetric key like 3DES or AES. The

symmetric key can be used to enable a secure channel between the

communicating entities. NFC specific key agreement mechanism is also

there, which is of less computational cost for establishing a secure channel.

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6. OVERVIEW OF NFC APPLICATIONS :

This section provides an overview of NFC applications in the real world (See

Figure 6) such as in retail, automotive, office, terminal, theatre/ stadium etc. NFC

technology is used for the purpose of ticketing, payment, sharing (share files

between phones), service discovery i.e. get information by touching smart phones

etc. Some of the advantages of NFC to industrial applications are listed below :

• NFC enables touch based and easy communication between two devices.

• Communication setup with NFC takes milliseconds order of time whereas

for Bluetooth it is typically in seconds order.

NFC enables longer lifetime of the sensor battery in wireless sensor applications,

or even battery less implementation of the sensor.

Figure 6 : NFC Applications

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6.1. NFC Ticketing :

In NFC Ticketing, the user needs to carry a NFC enabled mobile phone to read and

store the ticket or access code from the reader. There is a ticketing sever to which a

NFC reader is connected. The user can read the ticket from the reader and store it

(See Figure 7).

Figure 7: NFC Ticketing

6.2. NFC Mobile Payment System :

In NFC Mobile Payment System, credit card or debit card essentials of the user are

stored in the secure element which is built in the OS. The merchant’s NFC reader

can read the essentials to transfer the money from the account to finish the

payment (See Figure 8).

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 Figure 8: NFC Mobile Payment

7. NFC SETUP :

Those who wish to use NFC must own an NFC compatible device or buy a SIM

card or SD card with an NFC chip installed on it. So with this, one can

communicate with other NFC devices and tags. Most common operating systems

used on NFC devices are android OS and Apple's iOS. Users can activate Google

wallet that is pre - installed on NFC compatible android phones. Other android

applications like PayPal’s mobile app, NFC payments can be downloaded from

sites like play store. Money transfer can be done by keeping two devices close to

each other. Note that it is very important to make your phone protected with a

password, to prevent a thief from unlocking the phone and using services such as

Google Wallet to purchase items or send money from the owner’s PayPal account

to the thief’s own account.

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8. NFC VENDORS AND MANUFACTURERS :

There are many vendors that have been working on NFC. Some of the names and

their chipsets are given in Table I. This is only for understanding of companies that

are manufacturing NFC chipsets and most of them are not available for retail sale.

Among these companies HTC and Xiaomi are using NFC controllers from NXP

and Broadcom.Except Inside secure and MediaTek chipsets, all others will support

full duplex mode of communication. The prices of all chipsets are almost the same.

Among them, Sony’s chipset is expensive which is used in Sony’s NFC one touch

remote and NXP’s PN544 gives high level of integration and greater flexibility.

Also it supports a number of RF protocols.

Table 1: NFC Vendors and Manufacturers

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9. FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF NFC SERVICES :

Many applications of NFC are the extensions to current solutions. Wireless or

Contactless payment and ticketing solutions are commonly available across the

world and, are compatible with NFC enabled devices. Taking these applications to

an appropriately equipped mobile device will be the next step in the adoption of

NFC.

New generations gadgets such as iPad, iPhone and iPod are equipped with NFC

technology. Recently, Microsoft announced that all Windows8 Phone devices will

make use of the NFC technology. Google’s Smartphone app, Google Wallet,

allows users to load entire credit card information and pay with the swipe of their

phone. Visa and Samsung combined to create a NFC compatible Smartphone

which will carry special content that aims to make purchases at the Olympic

Games faster.

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10. CONCLUSION:

This paper covered the entire details of Near Field Communication (NFC)

technology. NFC can be combined with existing infrared, Bluetooth technologies

for improving the range of NFC. NFC offers a secure and simple way for

transferring data between two electronic devices. Another advantage of NFC is its

compatibility with RFID technology. NFC is actually based on RFID technology.

RFID uses magnetic field induction to initiate communication between electronic

devices in close vicinity. NFC operates at 13.56MHz and has 424kbps maximum

data transfer rate. NFC is complementary to Bluetooth and 802.11 with their long

distance capabilities. This paper discussed the concepts of NFC technology in a

detailed manner including working, transmission details, protocols and standards,

application scenarios, future market, security standards and vendors’ chipsets

available for this standard.

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 REFERENCES

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
• http://www.nfc-forum.org
• http://www.ecma-international.org/
• http://developer.nokia.com/community/wiki/NFC_Handover_working_princ
iple
• http://www.nearfieldcommunicationnfc.net/nfc-future.html
• http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/nfc/nfc-near-field-
communications-security.php
• http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/nfc-security.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
• http://www.nfcworld.com/nfc-phones-list/
• http://www.nearfieldcommunication.org/howto-setup.html

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