What is NFC?
NFC stands for Near-Field Communication and is increasingly used for access control systems. It is a technology for contactless data exchange in near-field ranges and is based on high-frequency RFID technology (13.56 MHz). Many of today's smartphones support NFC and are therefore capable of simulating contactless cards for authentication. An NFC device can also act as a reader itself, reading both cards and NFC transponders. NFC also supports peer-to-peer communication (P2P) between two active devices. The major advantage of NFC is its extremely low energy consumption.
Would you like to know more about NFC?
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
This is the data exchange between two devices, such as between a smartphone and a point-of-sale terminal.
Card emulation
An NFC device (a smartphone, for instance) can be used as a contactless identification method and held to an NFC-capable RFID reader for authentication.
Read/write mode
When an NFC device (such as a smartphone) is in an active mode, it can read a passive tag (such as an NFC paper label).
For which applications is NFC access control used?
NFC authentication enables a wide range of applications that ensure secure and convenient contactless identity verification, covering a variety of access control scenarios. It is also gaining ground in applications for payment systems, exchanging multimedia files and in the retail segment.
Further Applications
- Bluetooth/WiFi authentication
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Smart home
The transmission range of NFC will typically be 10 centimeters but varies significantly depending on the device used. Due to this short distance, in certain applications an established connection is considered consent to a transaction (e.g. for mobile payments).
It only takes a split second for a connection to be established between two NFC-capable devices. The maximum transmission speed is 424 kbit/s. NFC is therefore ideally suited for mobile payment systems.
NFC is based on RFID technology for contactless data transfer. It assigns certain RFID transponder types to appropriate NFC tag types, enabling extensive standardization and compatibility when used with contactless cards. The main difference between NFC and classic RFID is the peer-to-peer connection in which two active NFC devices exchange data directly.