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Who am I?
Gerald Madlmayr is mobile consultant dealing especially with contactless and UICC-based applications as well as security and privacy in such systems. In 2009 he was named the 'NFC-Guru' by Nokia and in November 2009 he received the "ID World People" Award for his work in the field of contactless technology.
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- This is it.
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- Symbian^3 Devices with JSR-177 (APDU Package) announced at Nokia World
- Mobile Payment, re-visited
- Near Field Communication & Single Wire: NFC Phones with SWP
- Contactless – where are we now and what to come?
- Nomination for my first "Academy Award".
- Nokia Champion -- re-election & A1-Innovation Days
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- mobilkom austria rolls out VISA credit card in Austria.
ISO 14443, ISO 18092, Type-A, Type-B, Type-F, Felica, Calypso NFCIP, NFC … – HELP!
geri-m | 16 May, 2009 11:38
You are trying to start with NFC Development? You are familiarly with coding and have devices and Tags? But nothing is working? Well then, this might be due to the different RF-layers that are used in the Domains of proximity Technology.
“Why does he write ‘proximity Technology’?`” you might ask. Well, all of the terms mentioned above have something to do with contactless technology, which might be integrated into handsets for “Near Field Communication”. Today I’d like to focus on the very low layers and why there some systems not talking to each other.
Let’s start of with ISO/IEC 14443. This is actually the standard for contactless smartcards and is divided into four parts, giving details on the physical characteristics, the RF-modulation and the format for data exchange, namely APDUs. But during standardization, two major players could not agree on how the RF modulation (in Part 2) should be implemented. There for the standards includes two completely different options for the RF modulation, named Type-A and Type-B. Where as smartcard usually only support one type, an ISO/IEC 14443 reader (also referred to as PCD – Proximity Coupling Device) needs to be able to support both types. The layers no top (3 & 4) are the same then for both Types. Type-B cards are mainly used in France and francophone countries. More details on the different types can be found in the table below as well as in the RFID-Handbook by Klaus Finkenzeller (which is the reference book for Contactless Technology)
Fig 2.: Matrix of different Contactless RF-Layers
Mifare (Classic) – a product of NXP Semiconductors – is a contactless smartcard based on ISO/IEC 14443-A. But in this case, the layer 4 (APDUs) is not implemented but a proprietary cryptographic algorithms (CRYPTO-1) used to encrypt this connection. A Mifare card can hold 1 or 4 KB of Memory to store data. Other products of NXP are Desfire (using no or 3DES encryption, 4 KB of memory) and Mifare Ultralight (96+ Bytes of memory, no encryption). Mifare is actually the most popular contactless smartcard in the world with more that 1,5 billion pieces sold around the world. Lot’s of public transport schemas such as Oyster (Transport for London) use Mifare for Ticketing. Also the RFID-Ticktes for the Football World Champion Ship 2006 in Germany were based on Mifare Technology.
UPDATE: I' actually missed to mention Calypso - also referred to as Type-B'. Calypso is a transport application implemented by the Calypso network. On RF-Layer, B' is aquivilant to ordinary type B, but the protocoll on top is proprietary. Allthough there is a Calypso implementation on Java Cards as well, which would allow to load this applcation in to ordinary JavaCards or Secure Element of NFC Devices (which then should support Type-B for the Modulation)
Felica is a contactless cards produced by Sony, which is mainly used in Japan. Felica is used in public transport (Suica/Japan Rail), for contactless micro payments and room keys in hotels. Felica is neither based on type-a nor Type-B, but has its own modulation schema (sometimes also referred to as type-F). For the communication with Felica cards, a reader has to send so called “F-Frames” to the card, which are similar to APDUs. For the communication with Felica cards, there are different modes (mode-0, -1) allowing also unencrypted communication, but unfortunately there is no documentation available on that. Felica used a 3DES for the encryption of the communication, but as the protocol itself is proprietary one else then Sony is able to build these cards. Until 2007 Sony sold about 200 million pieces of Felica Cards.
Fig. 1: Market Penetration of Contactless Smartcards (Taken from NXP Presenation at NFC Congress 2007 by Felix Marx)
So how does NFC fit in here now? Well, lets’ have a closer look at ISO/IEC 18092 (NFC is also standardized in EMCA340/380) first, which is the standard for NFCIP-1. In this standard it is defined, that Type-A is used for communication between active and passive device for a communication speed with 106 kbit and then use Type-F for communication speeds 212 and 424 kbit. An ISO/IEC 18092 compliant device thus is able to act as a ISO/IEC 14443-A Target or Reader as well as read and emulate Felica cards (at least establish a connection on physical layer). So know can I emulate a ISO14443 card or a Felica card without the according smartcard chip? Well the solutions quite simple: just send the according Frames over the RF-Layer and the reader outside will believe he is talking to a smartcard. But in order to do so, you will need to have low-level access to the communication interfaces of the NFC-Chip. Such “tricks” are not possible with the JSR257 as this is a high level API. This ISO/IEC 18092 standard also defines a protocol – NFCIP1 – which allows two devices (there a device also could be a passive tag!) to exchange data, which then actually “real” Near Field Communication according to this standard.
So, is there no Type-B in the World of NFC you might ask? Good question. For a physical layer perspective - no. This is due to take fact, that NFC (ISO 18092!) was invented jointly by NXP and Sony and therefore only their needs are covered in this standard. As the specification of the integration of NFC-Technology (which covers ISO 18092 as well as ISO 14443 in active and passive mode) into devices is driven by the NFC-Forum, it is likely that also Type-B will be support by “NFC-Forum-Compliant” devices.
And what about the upcoming Nokia 6216, what does it support? I made a compatability matrix (but don't take this information for granted!)
Fig. 3: Modes of the Nokia 6216 (Taken from a Nokia Presenation at WIMA 2009 by Saku Sulander)
A nice overview is given here: Philips-NFC-vs-ISO14443-vs-Felica-SLIDES.pdf (taken from www.proxmark.org)
NFC
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ISO 14443 Type B
geri-m | 28/05/2009, 10:06
Hi rsmurugan,
thanks for your post. Unfortunatly I don't have an ISO1444-4 Card to test with my Nokia phones ... sorry. But I'll keep you posted, as soon as I know something.
Br, Gerald
SmartMX on Nokia 6216
rsmurugan | 02/06/2009, 01:49
Guru,
Thanks for your reply,
I understand SmartMX is not available in 6216 ?
any suggestions on how to manage projects that uses SmartMX in 6212, if we upgrade it to 6216 ?
BR, SM
Re: SmartMX on Nokia 6216
geri-m | 02/06/2009, 08:32
Dear rsmurugan,
actually in this case you will need a Single Wire Protocol (SWP) SIM (UICC) Card. In order to have Network, this UICC muss be sigend up in a network of an MNO -- on the other hand, you will have to make a deal with the MNO in order to get the keys to load apps into the UICC ... well, I think this will be tricky.
br, Gerald
Type A or B globally?
npr.novo | 04/06/2009, 09:17
Gerald,
So, if I was to choose between type A or type B, for a SmartCard application, and I globally wanted to focus on North America, Europe and Japan. What would your advice then be?
br,
NPR
npr.novo
geri-m | 04/06/2009, 09:29
Hi NPR,
well, neighter A & B will work in Japan, A will not work in France and B not in the rest of Europe. Actually there is not a single card typ, that can be used around the globe. It also depends if you want to use it with already existing infrastructure or with your own. If you would build your own infrasstrukcture, I'd head for Typ-A as it has the largest market share.
Best,
Gerald
Type A or B globally?
npr.novo | 04/06/2009, 11:10
I know the readers are the key turning point and that application on these is what makes everything work. But if we look at readers supporting NFC as the NFC-forum describes, what is your opinion then regarding A or B? I guess what it comes down to is, will e.g. mobile phones support both A and B globally or do we need to make country specific applications (e.g. Smart Poster) based on either type A or B?
br,
Type B
rsmurugan | 05/06/2009, 17:36
Hi Guru, (hope you don't mine, me calling you "Guru")
When 6212 not responding for Type B card even for ATR command, what might be the reason and suggestions/guess ?
Regards, Senthil
Type B
geri-m | 06/06/2009, 10:14
Sorry, I don't have a clue, as I don't have Type-B Cards to test. Br, Gerald
phone and coupling device communication
haeffner | 17/07/2009, 10:17
Hi Gerald,
I've a question about my Nokia 6212 (not the emulator).
I want to establish communication between the phone and an external reader.
But I don't really know how it works.
I know that I have firstly to unlock my phone with Certificate from Thawte and I know how to access SE in 6212.
But I'm failing to put 6212 in card simulation mode (Mifare or any type).
In 6231 there was an option in the phone menu but on 6212 I didn't find something like that.
Can you help me to enable this mode otherwise I'll never be able to communicate with my external reader.
nokia 6212
geri-m | 21/07/2009, 08:18
dear haeffner,
actually the 6212 is running card emulation all the time, therefore you don't have to swithc the phone into that mode. what kind of reader are you using?
cheers, geri-m
nokia 6212
geri-m | 21/07/2009, 08:20
dear haeffner,
actually the 6212 is running card emulation all the time, therefore you don't have to swithc the phone into that mode. what kind of reader are you using?
cheers, geri-m
Re:
ouarzazate | 19/09/2009, 15:18
thank you Gerald for this article.
NFC on all Nokia's?
bobbygu | 07/10/2009, 07:40
Gerald, we have developed a system for product authentication and verification. As of today, we have only two Nokia's that are available for use by our system.
What is the plan to implement NFC across the Nokia product line?
Any help would be appreciated.
Robert
Nice
نوكيا | 13/10/2009, 00:33
Nice to hear this !
Nokia product line
geri-m | 13/10/2009, 07:41
Hi Robert,
sorry, but Nokia does not comment on futher devices or device roadmaps.
Cheers, geri-m
ISO 14443 Type B
rsmurugan | 27/05/2009, 00:44
Hi NFC-Guru,
Another nice article by you and thanks for the same.
I read in forum nokia previously 6212 can read/write ( using APDU) we can communicate with external TypeB cards. then what its means ? I tried to do so, but no use. its not responding at all. Do we need to change any firmware ?