Abstract This report presents a comprehensive overview of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology and is generally intended for

the people who do not have prior knowledge of this technology. A brief working mechanism, key benefits and the related issues of NFC are initially outlined. The discussion then focuses on its historical development. Further, key related issues of NFC technology are analyzed with some appropriate examples. Also, the comparison between NFC with other wireless technologies is shown and analyzed in detail in this section. Finally, the future of NFC technology along with its recent developments is discussed.

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 What is NFC? ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 How NFC works? .................................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Key benefits of NFC ............................................................................................................. 3 1.4 Key issues in Near Field Communication ............................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Historical Development ................................................................................................ 5 2.1 History of NFC ...................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 3: Analysis and Commentary ............................................................................................ 7 3.1 Comparison of Benefits......................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Analysis of Issues .................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 4: Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 9 4.1 The future of NFC ................................................................................................................. 9 References ..................................................................................................................................... 10

Table of figures:
Fig 1.2.1 Active communication mode..2 Fig 1.2.2 Passive communication mode..2 Fig 2.1.1 Timeline showing historical development and evolution of NFC..5

Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter gives you a brief overview of NFC technology along with its working mechanisms, key benefits and the related key issues.

1.1 What is NFC?

NFC is a standard defined by NFC forum, a global consortium of hardware, s/w application, credit card companies, banking, networking providers and others who are interested in the advancement and standardization of this promising technology (Ortiz, 2008). It is a simple extension of ISO/IEC 14443 proximity card standard combining both the interface of smart card as well as of a reader into a single device (Hickman, 2011).

1.2 How NFC works?

Near Field Communication is a standard-based (ECMA-340, ISO/IEC 18092) short range wireless communication technology which operates in a close proximity, typically up to 10 cm (Ecma, 2004a; Paus, 2007). It provides safe, simple and intuitive communication between two NFC compatible devices (NFC forum, 2007). NFC technology is based on the Radio Frequency Identification technology that uses the magnetic field induction to allow the communication between two NFC devices (Ecma, 2004b). Connection is established automatically when you held two NFC devices close to each other. It operates at the frequency of 13.56 MHz, with the data transfer rate of 106, 212 or 424 kilobits per second (Ecma, 2004c; Paus, 2007). NFC architecture is composed of initiator (active device) and target (passive device). A device is called active if it generates its own Radio frequency (RF) field otherwise it is called a passive device (Gomes, 2007a). Active devices generally have a power supply while passive devices dont (e.g. contactless smart card) (Haselsteiner, 2006; Breitful, 2006). Thus, two modes of communication are possible if two devices are held close to each other. They are

Active communication mode

(Source: Gomes, 20007)

Fig 1.2.1: Active communication mode Fig 1.2.1 clearly shows that the active communication mode takes place when two active devices communicate to each other, where both the initiator and target devices generate their own RF field (Gomes, 2007b). Passive communication mode

(Source: Gomes, 20007)

Fig 1.2.2: Passive communication mode

Here, in the above figure a passive communication mode is shown where RF field is generated by the initiator only (Gomes, 2007c).

In contrast with other wireless communication technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, NFC works at slower speed, with a maximum data transfer rate of 0.424 Mbps. However, it consumes far less power and does not require pairing. (Paus, 2007b
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1.3 Key benefits of NFC

The main benefits of using NFC technology are its simplicity and ease of use. Besides providing intuitive and safe two way interaction between two NFC devices, it also provides intrinsic security level. On top of intrinsic security level, versatility, better real time management and improvement of customer service and communication and interoperability are other major advantages of NFC technology (Elliot, 2011). Moreover, NFC technology is also compatible with the existing RFID technologies, tags and smart cards so that this technology is more likely to be adopted by more people (Koskun, 2010; Aydin, 2010). Here, we will be focusing more on its simplicity. Because of its simplicity, today this

technology is used in every areas of life. For instance: this technology can be used in transportation, event booking, for advertising purpose, for peer to peer networking and to make contactless payment. Simplicity means it is so familiar to all the people and simple to use. With a single touch, you will be able to make payment. Today, we expect this technology to be mostly used with mobile phones. Your mobile phones equipped with NFC technology will work more like credit cards so that you do not need to carry money with you all the time anymore. We will be discussing more on its simplicity in contrast to other existing wireless technologies later in chapter 3.

1.4 Key issues in Near Field Communication

Because of its simplicity, the use of NFC technology is growing more and more in daily life applications. According to Hammad Raza Kazmi, this might leads the intruder to enter into your personal life and privacy (Kazmi, 2011). Thus, Security, privacy and Regulatory issues are the major issues to be taken into consideration. Here, security issues will be focused more. Since, NFC is a short range wireless communication technology and requires continuous user interaction, you are never sure about how secure is your communication. In 2006, Ernest Haselsteiner and Klmens Breitful discussed some of the possible security issues and solutions for ensuring high security of NFC. Eavesdropping, data modification, data insertion and data destruction are some of the possible security related attacks. NFC does not provide complete protection against eavesdropping and is highly vulnerable to modifications of data (Haselsteiner, 2006; Breitful, 2006a). We will be discussing and analyzing more on the security issues with some real time examples later in the chapter 3. Also, solutions and recommendations in order to minimize the possible threats and ensure higher security in NFC will be discussed.

Chapter 2: Historical Development The purpose of this chapter is to provide you a brief history of NFC technology. Also, the recent development in the field of this technology will be discussed here.

2.1 History of NFC

Fig 2.1.1: Timeline showing historical development and evolution of NFC (Burghardt, 2010a; Gemeinder, 2010)

NFC technology is actually the evolution of RFID technology .Talking about the history of Near Field Communication technology; it dates back to July 5th, 2002 when Phillips and Sony announced that they started to develop a new near radio frequency communication technology called Near Field Communication (Shim, 2001). And after two years, they along with Nokia jointly established NFC forum (Burghardt, 2010b). The main purpose of this forum is to encourage the development of products using NFC technology and to educate the people about the use of this technology. However, they do not sell NFC devices or products. Later on architecture of NFC technology with initial specifications of NFC tags were outlined by them in 2006. The history of NFC technology saw competition when the Nokia established the first mobile phone using NFC technology. Today, every mobile companies and enterprises companies have realized the importance of using NFC technology in their devices. And now there are 150 members in NFC forum including Samsung, Microsoft, PayPal, Google, Sharp and more (Burghardt, 2010c). Many mobile phones have already deployed NFC technology; including Googles recently launched Nexus S. Nokia and blackberry are on its way to implement NFC technology in their devices. It is rumored that NFC technology will be incorporated by apple in its coming iphone5 (BBC, 2011).

Chapter 3: Analysis and Commentary This chapter tells how NFC technology is different from other existing wireless communication technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Advantage of NFC technology over those technologies will also be discussed. It further describes the key issues of NFC, mentioned earlier with real time examples and will be analyzed in detail.

3.1 Comparison of Benefits

In contrast to other wireless communication technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and infrared, NFC technology is much more intuitive and simple to use. Due to which, this technology has been able to rise its market. Compared to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, NFC operates at slow speed with a maximum data transfer rate of 424 kb/ps. However, it has more key benefits over Bluetooth, WI-Fi and Infrared on various aspects (Paus, 2007c). Simplicity is the major one in which NFC wins other wireless protocols to large extent. You do not need to go through all those manual process to configure the network setups like you used to do in case of Bluetooth. What you need to do here is simply hold the two NFC compatible devices close to each other and then connection between them are established automatically and you are done. Thus, it takes less time to set up network connection. This shorter set up time allows you to make payments more easily (Dantes, 2011a). NFC technology is a short range wireless technology, typically up to 10cm. This minimizes the possible interceptions and makes NFC especially suitable in noisy and crowded areas (Ghanname, 2006). This makes NFC enabled device even more intuitive and simple to use. Apart from simplicity and short range, power consumption of NFC is very low compared to Bluetooth and infrared. In contrast to Bluetooth, NFC is compatible with existing RFID technologies (Paus, 2007d). However, NFC still could not provide efficient security. The security level of Bluetooth is much more improved than that of NFC (Dantes, 2011b).

3.2 Analysis of Issues

As we have already mentioned earlier in chapter 2, Security and Privacy issues are the major issues to be considered in NFC. Since, NFC is a new technology and will be in every mobile device in the future as predicted by Juniper Research; this technology is more likely to be attacked (Mulliner, 2008). According to Silicon Angle, "Malware creators are gearing up for when things like NFC payments and stored value go mainstream. (Storm, 2011) Despite the short range of communication, NFC technology is still vulnerable to different kinds of threats. A person with special antenna could easily eavesdrop while two devices are communicating. In the same way, using RFID jammer, any one could destroy the data sent via NFC. A complete solution for this kind of problem has not been found yet. A lot of people are concerned about the security problem of NFC. Regarding the challenges and the security issues of NFC, Erik Vlugt, who is the VP product marketing, integrated systems at VeriFone shared the world of NFC does not remove the challenges facing security with our card form of payment, however, there are benefits to it that solve a few of the plastic problems facing us today. (Robinson, 2011; Stickel, 2011). Lets take some real time examples of security issues faced by some of the notable mobile companies. Cullin Muller, a doctoral student at techninishe university, Berlin recently discovered a new vulnerability adversely affecting Google Android phone Nexus S that could make its applications go crash using in correctly formatted NFC transactions He added that those attacks allow the malicious NFC tag to send faulty information to Nexus S. Google has claimed that they have developed a fix for those attacks and are now testing it (Roberts, 2011). Despite those securities issues and challenges faced by issues. Every mobile company is working now to find solutions to ensure higher security in NFC technology. Ernest Haselsteiner and Klemens Breitful have found some solutions in order to minimize the eavesdropping and data modification issues. According to them, a secure channel can be established to protect against eavesdropping and data modification threats. Likewise, both the active and passive mode of communication can be surveyed to protect NFC against Man-in-Middle attack. However, a complete solution to ensure high security in NFC has not been discovered yet (Haselsteiner, 2006; Breitful, 2006).

Chapter 4: Conclusion

4.1 The future of NFC

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is on the verge of rolling out into supermarkets, restaurants and shops globally, The use of NFC equipped mobile phone will be ubiquitous in next few years says the Juniper Research. Juniper research predicted that one in six mobile phones will be contactless by 2014. In the same way, IMS research added that there will be 80 million NFC cell phones by the end of 2012 (Storm, 2011). NFC equipped devices will be the Swiss knife to communication. It will be used in almost in every areas of life. Soon or later, you will be able to store all your personal data and files using NFC technology. Now, more and more companies have already realized the importance of using NFC technology in their devices and are in a way to implement this technology in their devices. For instance: Apple Inc is working to implement NFC technology in their coming ipad and iphone. Apples service may be able to tap into user information already on file, including credit-card numbers, iTunes gift-card balance and bank data, said Richard Crone, who leads financial industry adviser Crone Consulting LLC in San Carlos, California. It would make a lot of sense for Apple to include NFC functionality in its products, Crone said (Kharif, 2011). In the same way, it is rumored that HTC Edge, a quad-core Android handset with a 4.7-inch screen will be using NFC technology. Likewise, Motorola is rumored to be introducing two NFC-enabled phones in the first quarter of 2012, the Motorola Bullet and the Motorola Jet (Davies, 2011). The slow adoption of NFC is due to several factors, including the complexity of the service models, cost of building out infrastructure, lack of standards, regulatory issues and availability of NFC-capable devices (e.g., smart phones). But all those factors are changing rapidly theres a lot of interest in NFC today as the smart phone industry is making everyones life simpler and easier. On the basis of findings in the benefits and issues of NFC, we can conclude that NFC is a great technology that provides safe, simple and intuitive communication between two NFC compatible devices. However, Security and privacy are the major areas of concern.

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