A survey on NFC Payment: Applications, Research Challenges, and Future Directions
Subject Areas : Communication Systems & Devices
Mehdi
Sattarivand
1
Shahram
Babaie
2
Amir Masoud
Rahmani
3
Keywords: Near Field Communication (NFC), NFC Payment, Card emulation, NFC security,
Abstract :
Near Field Communication (NFC), as a short-range wireless connectivity technology, makes it easier for electronic devices to stay in touch. This technology, due to its advantages such as secure access, compatibility, and ease of use, can be utilized in multiple applications in various domains such as banking, file transferring reservations, booking tickets, redeeming, entry/exit passes, and payment. In this survey paper, various aspects of this technology, including operating modes, their protocol stacks, and standard message format are investigated. Moreover, future direction of NFC in terms of design, improvement, and user-friendliness is presented for further research. In addition, due to the disadvantages of banknote-based payment methods such as the high temptation to steal and the need for a safe, mobile payments, which include mobile wallets and mobile money transfers, are explored as a new alternative to these methods. In addition, the traditional payment methods and their limitations are surveyed along with NFC payment as a prominent application of this technology. Furthermore, security threats of NFC payment along with future research directions for NFC payment and its challenges, including protocols and standards, and NFC payment security requirements are addressed in this paper. It is hoped that effective policies for NFC payment development will be provided by addressing the important challenges and formulating appropriate standards.
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http://jist.acecr.org ISSN 2322-1437 / EISSN:2345-2773 |
Journal of Information Systems and Telecommunication
|
A survey on NFC Payment: Applications, Research Challenges, and Future Directions |
Mehdi Sattarivand1, Shahram Babaie2*, Amir Masoud Rahmani1
|
1.Department of Computer Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2.Department of Computer Engineering, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
|
Received: 19 Apr 2021/ Revised: 04 Dec 2022/ Accepted: 10 Jan 2023 |
|
Abstract
Near Field Communication (NFC), as a short-range wireless connectivity technology, makes it easier for electronic devices to stay in touch. This technology, due to its advantages such as secure access, compatibility, and ease of use, can be utilized in multiple applications in various domains such as banking, file transferring reservations, booking tickets, redeeming, entry/exit passes, and payment. In this survey paper, various aspects of this technology, including operating modes, their protocol stacks, and standard message format are investigated. Moreover, future direction of NFC in terms of design, improvement, and user-friendliness is presented for further research. In addition, due to the disadvantages of banknote-based payment methods such as the high temptation to steal and the need for a safe, mobile payments, which include mobile wallets and mobile money transfers, are explored as a new alternative to these methods. In addition, the traditional payment methods and their limitations are surveyed along with NFC payment as a prominent application of this technology. Furthermore, security threats of NFC payment along with future research directions for NFC payment and its challenges, including protocols and standards, and NFC payment security requirements are addressed in this paper. It is hoped that effective policies for NFC payment development will be provided by addressing the important challenges and formulating appropriate standards.
Keywords: Near Field Communication (NFC); NFC Payment; Card Emulation; NFC Security.
1- Introduction
In recent years, the electronic industry is improving significantly in various aspects and profoundly affected people’s lives by dispelling some traditional problems. In NFC technology, two NFC-enabled devices can create a point-to-point connection via a wireless channel. The NFC technology has been firstly introduced by two leading manufacturers in the electronics industry, Sony and Philips in 2002. Some advantages of this technology such as flexibility, versatility, and ease to use caused it to extend its application in many fields such as file transferring, health monitoring systems, indoor navigation, ticketing, and financial [1].
Although many electronic devices can be equipped with NFC technology, this technology is mostly installed on smartphones. Also, other mobile network technologies such as 3G, 4G, and 5G have been added to mobile smartphones to provide broadband high-speed internet connection for users [2]. Nowadays, NFC is the most leading technology that can be embedded in smartphones and tablets. The theoretical maximum working distance of this technology is 20 centimeters, moreover, in practice, the range of reliable communication is much smaller, usually about 5 centimeters. In general, a combination of the contactless identification and interconnection technologies can compose an NFC system, which requires two NFC-compatible devices close to each other for a proper response [3].
In general, mobile payment due to its specific features such as safe, secure, convenient, and fast is an increasingly attractive method to pay. It should be noted that smartphone technology plays an essential role in the growth of these transactions [4]. It is reported that over 3.4 billion smartphones will be equipped with Android Pay, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay by the end of 2017; likewise, this may reach 5.3 billion by 2021. Moreover, Apple Pay transactions grew 450 percent in the first quarter of 2017 in comparison to the same quarter of 2016. In stores, mobile payments can carry out through NFC technology, which stands for Near Field Communication. Also, NFC can also be combined with RFID technology and read its tags also applied as a file transfer system. Therefore, NFC-enabled payments due to the three key reasons, i.e., secure, fast, and convenient can convince vendors to provide their products with this technology. Also, digital payment instead of paying for products with cash, checks, or physical credit cards causes people to carry less cash [5].
In general, safety and security are vital requirements in financial transactions. NFC technology due to the short support range can be considered as a reliable method for these applications [6]. The NFC connection is initiated when two NFC-enabled devices are close to each other almost 5 centimeters. Therefore, eavesdropping on the transaction’s data is hard for a third party. Supporting a shorter range leads to improved security as a key NFC advantage over other communication systems. In general, the NFC technology is a short-range half-duplex communication protocol, working at 13.56 MHz frequency band, which is designed for particular applications [7]. NFC can enable a variety of innovative services. As a result, it is right to say that NFC provides smooth content delivery, brings simplicity to transactions, and enables secure information sharing. Moreover, NFC can build various opportunities for vendors, banks, mobile operators, and transport operators [8].
There are two operating modes in NFC, active and passive modes [9]. In the active mode, both devices generate the RF field to establish the connection and transfer data. Whereas, in the passive mode, one active device generates the RF field to establish the connection and transfer the data. Table 1 shows the NFC communication modes; also, Table 2 compares the WPAN technologies.
Table 1. Communication Modes in NFC [10].
Device A | Device B | RF Field Generation | RF Mode |
Active | Active | Generated by Both Devices | Active Mode |
Active | Passive | Generated by Device A Only | Passive Mode |
Passive | Active | Generated by Device B Only | Passive Mode |
NFC supports three data transfer rates i.e. 106, 212, and 424 KB/s [11], also, a variety of data coding techniques such as Manchester, modified miller, and NRZ-L are applied in this technology [12]. NFC also supports both 10% ASK and 100% ASK modulation. In fact, data rate, operation mode, RF signaling, and standards are major parameters to determine the modulation type. Figure 1 shows modulation and coding of an NFC connection.
Table 2. Comparison of WPAN Technologies [11].
Parameter | Bluetooth | ZigBee | NFC |
Range | 10-100 m | 10-100 m | 4-10 cm |
Data Rate | 0.8-2.1 Mbps | 0.02-0.2 Mbps | 0.02-0.4 Mbps |
Cost | Low | Low | Low |
Power Consumption | High | Medium | Low |
Spectrum | 2.4 GHz | 2.4 GHz | 13.54 MHz |
Security | Low | Low | High |
Network Topology | Piconets, Scatternets | Star, Tree, Mesh | One to One |
Devices per Network | 8 | 2-65,000 | 2 |
Usability | Moderate, Data Centric | Easy, Data Centric | Easy, Human centric |
Personalization | Medium | Low | High |
Flexibility | High | High | High |
Setup Time | Approx. 6 s | Approx. 0.5 s | Less Than 0.1 s |
According to [13], secure elements play a principal role when a secure transaction is needed in an NFC connection for either transmitting and storing data in NFC-enabled devices. Secure elements can create a secure environment for the sensitive data that is transferred and stored in an NFC connection such as users’ credit card information and access key information when using card emulator mode. Also, HCE as the latest SE of NFC is another security approach to stores and manages the user’s private data in the smartphone.
In this paper, the main goal is to survey the current NFC payment methods including their related architecture, standards, and challenges. Moreover, the existing solutions to overcome these challenges are presented, and future research directions of NFC payment are investigated in terms of design, improvement, and user-friendliness to dispel the challenges. In addition, along with presenting the drawbacks of banknote-based payment methods such as high temptation to steal, mobile payments and NFC payment, which include mobile wallets and mobile money transfers, are explored as a new effective alternative. Furthermore, security challenges of NFC payment are investigated; also various approaches that are applied for securing the NFC payment are introduced and compared in terms of security requirements. Finally, it has been endeavored that new future directions are addressed to improve protocols and standards for and NFC payment security requirements
Fig. 1. Modulation and Coding of an NFC Connection [11].
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: NFC technology and its operating modes are introduced in section 2. Current payment methods and their limitations are discussed in section 3. Afterward, in section 4 the concept of NFC payment is represented. Section 5 presents the NFC payment security and security threats. The future direction of NFC payment is subject to be investigated in section 6. Finally, section 7 concludes the paper.
2- NFC Architecture, Standards, and Protocols
In this section NFC architecture, standards, and protocol are introduced in detail. In some studies, some modules have been proposed to improve the performance of NFC technology. Likewise, secure elements play an essential role in NFC applications, especially in payment cases. A mobile device equipped with NFC technology depending on its application may also have more than one SE. There are three operating modes in NFC, which are investigated in the following subsections.
2-1- Operating Modes
NFC technology similar to other communication systems needs a set of standards and protocols to control how the network elements operate, communicate, and guarantee security. Therefore, increasing the number and improving these standards result in ease of access and guaranteed security; meanwhile, it may make the NFC slightly more complicated than its status. The most significant standardization association for NFC technology is NFC Forum, which develops and improves all of NFC essentials, as well as NFC standards. NFC Forum is a non-profit association, which aims to turn NFC into a better network environment also extend it worldwide [14].
2-1-1- Reader/Writer Mode
Reader/writer mode is an operation mode of the NFC in which an active mobile NFC-enabled device initiates a wireless communication; it can also read and modify the stored data in the NFC tag accordingly. [15]. In this mode, the NFC-enabled device can read and write the NFC Forum’s standard tags, which can be in four types. Consequently, the user can read, write the stored data on the NFC transponder, and carry out the proper action later. Following NFC Forum, messages of the NFC communication have a specific format, which is called NDEF. In general, several NDEF records are chained to each other to create an NDEF message, so that a more substantial payload can be transferred. The protocol stack of the reader/writer mode is also depicted in Fig. 2(a).
(a) |
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(b) |
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(c) |
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Fig. 2. Protocol Stack of the (a) Reader/Writer Mode, (b) Peer-to-Peer Mode, (c) Card Emulation Mode [17].
2-1-2- Peer-to-Peer Mode
In this mode, a bidirectional connection is made between two NFC-enabled devices, in which two devices can actively transmit any data such as business information, payment transaction information, and file sharing [16]. The RF communication interface in the peer-to-peer connection of NFC is standardized by ISO/IEC 18092 protocol, which is called NFCIP-1 that enables the “request and response” feature for both devices to make sharing data capability. In the mode, both of the NFC devices, i.e., initiator and target are active. Also, the RF uses 13.56 MHz, frequency band. The protocol stack of the peer-to-peer mode of NFC is illustrated in Fig. 2(b).
2-1-3- Card Emulation Mode
In card emulation mode, both NFC devices use the same analog and digital techniques based on the ISO/IEC 14443 type A, type B, and SONY FeliCa. In this operation mode, when a mobile user’s NFC device touches an NFC reader, its NFC device acts as a smart card also the NFC reader deals with the emulate smart card security element.
In this mode, the NFC reader is active, and the smartphone is passive. Applications of the card emulation mode are access control and ticketing. In general, some standards such as ISO/IEC 14443 type A, type B, and SONY FeliCa communication interfaces are applied in these applications. Figure 2(c) indicates the protocol stack of the card emulation mode. A summary of NFC operating modes including reader/writer mode, peer-to-peer mode, and card emulation mode is shown in Fig. 3.