NFC has appeared on mobile phones for 11 years. But even so, most people are still confused when they see NFC. NFC, as a playable and usable function, is used to replace all kinds of cards, or as a source of gossip, It is still necessary to give you a comprehensive introduction.
PS： 6700 words, 10-15 minutes
History and Technical Basis
The first NFC enabled mobile phone Nokia 6131 was released in 2006, and the first NFC enabled Android phone was the Nexus S released in 2010. At the end of 2012, the domestic flagship began to carry NFC slowly, and the Apple camp started to carry NFC on the iPhone 6 in 2014. The domestic services such as Apple Pay, Samsung Smart Pay, Huawei/Xiaomi Payment, which began to operate in 2016, are the largest applications of NFC in many years.
The full name of NFC is Near Field Communication, which evolved from RFID and interconnection technology and was jointly developed by Philips and Sony in 2003. In 2004, they and Nokia established the NFC Forum Association, which is used to establish and promote NFC technical standards. To this day, China Mobile, Huawei ZTE, Xiaomi Meizu, vivo, OPPO and other manufacturers are members of the NFC Forum.
Technical characteristics and advantages: The NFC operates at 13.56MHz, the maximum transmission speed is only 424kbit/s, and the effective data transmission rate distance is only about 10cm (in fact, the NFC distance between the bus card and the mobile phone is generally less than 5cm). However, its advantage is that it can directly read and exchange data without troublesome pairing process, which can be understood as an interconnection technology that uses transmission distance to "exchange" power consumption and security. In addition, NFC also has a peerless pairing speed, which is less than 0.1ms (can improve experience and security). As a comparison, Bluetooth takes about 6 seconds and infrared takes about 0.5 seconds.
The read objects, such as NFC tags, bus cards/access cards, are driven by electric power generated by coil induction, so they do not need batteries and can be very small in size and weight. Even if it works in the card reader mode, because the RF working distance is very short, its power consumption is also very low, and the power consumption is far lower than that of Bluetooth when it is normally open.
Hardware composition: NFC hardware consists of CLF (non connected front-end module), RF antenna and SE (Secure Element security area). The common bus card balance reading can be completed by using the CLF+antenna. If the mobile phone/watch is simulated as a bus card (air card issuing and recharging), the SE part needs to be added. What we see outside is the structure of chip+coil (the bus card and flash bank card are also the two basic components inside). The coil is usually installed on the back shell or placed close to the battery, and NFC induction is generally conducted through the back of the phone.
Operating mode and purpose
NFC has three working modes: active, passive and two-way, respectively corresponding to three working modes: card reader in mobile phone and smart watch/bracelet (such as mobile phone reading bus card balance), card simulation (such as mobile phone simulating bus card, access card), and P2P (such as point-to-point data transmission like Bluetooth).
Corresponding to the three working modes of NFC, the uses of NFC can be roughly divided into the following three categories according to the application range from small to large:
Bi directional (P2P point-to-point data transmission mode) : It mainly refers to point-to-point data transmission. The advantage is that pairing can be completed when close to each other, eliminating password input. Android Beam, which was added in the era of Android 4.0, is based on the technical principle of initializing the Bluetooth connection between two NFC phones through NFC (NFC It is basically used to transmit pairing information), and then transmit data and files such as website, contacts, pictures, music, videos, etc. to each other. Through third-party apps, you can complete other types of data sharing such as wifi passwords and addresses.
Samsung's S Beam uses WiFi instead of Bluetooth transmission. Although it can only be used between Samsung mobile phones, its speed has been greatly improved. Another special usage is the NFC pairing common in Sony cameras/speakers and other products. It also transmits transmission protocols and information through NFC to complete fast and simple pairing. However, due to the low popularity of NFC and the powerful communication software such as WeChat, this function has no practical value for 99% of domestic users.
The function of checking bus card balance on mobile phones has been available since 2012
Active (Reader Mode) ： NFC is compatible with ISO7816-3/ISO15693/FeliCa (the standard proposed by Sony, which is widely used in Japan) PBC2.0 (the second generation financial IC card specification of the People's Bank of China, which is mainly used on bank cards, such as the electronic account part of flash cards) and other standards, and can read common bus cards, card type one-time tickets, bank cards, access cards Unencrypted balance, transaction record and other information in campus card, NFC label and other products.
Now we can see the NFC label of chicken ribs
NFC tags have been popular for some time. In addition to some early NFC phones that will deliver several NFC tags that can be read and written by themselves, some manufacturers have even made smart products such as NFC rings. In essence, it is an NFC plastic sheet that records simple text information such as website and number. It can be used to switch between touch and touch mode, open some functions, open website, etc. For most people, the biggest use of this card reader mode is just to read the balance of the bus card.
Passive (card emulation mode) As the name implies, it means that the NFC of mobile phones/watches can be simulated/disguised as various NFC compliant cards mentioned above, which can save a large number of physical cards without affecting the original mode of bus card companies/banks and other enterprises. This is the most widely used and promising use in the entire NFC field, including simulating mobile phones/watches into access cards, bus cards, and UnionPay flash payment Apple Pay、 Samsung Smart Pay, Huawei/Xiaomi Pay, etc., appeared earlier, but HCE Flash Pay, which has a much smaller reputation (Android 4.4+NFC+bank app can be used), is also one of them. The following will focus on the access card and bus card simulation, as well as the three biggest uses of UnionPay flash payment.
IC/ID cards such as analog access cards
NFC Emulator access card simulation app - NFC Emulator (the software charges high and has many actual restrictions)
Access cards can be roughly divided into IC cards and ID cards. Simple access cards can also be read by mobile phones/watches NFC simulates its UID and can replace the card. Complex access cards, including UID, sector, keya/b, data and other data, cannot be simulated. Try to read the UID of the card with TagInfo and other apps.
Simulated bus card
For convenience, in order to carry less than one physical card, we can choose to insert the physical card into the mobile phone case. The high-end ones can even dismember the bus card, and then insert the chip and coil into the mobile phone case or back cover (if the back cover of the mobile phone can be opened). There are many smart products on the market, which also have built-in bus cards in the form of "shaped cards".
In 2015, there were a number of products that supported some city bus cards, such as the StarWrist smart watch, the Sharkey smart watch, the Tigerfish watch, and the Xingli payment bracelet (which also supports flash payment) launched by Industrial Bank. It is estimated that many people have never heard of it. The biggest disadvantage of these schemes is that they need to buy an additional intelligent device. Secondly, in an environment where almost large cities in China have their own bus cards, the bus cards between cities are not universal, which directly leads to such products being available in Lingnantong, all-in-one card and other versions, and cannot be used in the other's field.
The advantage of NFC simulation bus card is that the same device can be simulated into bus cards in different cities, even access cards, meal cards and other cards by changing internal data, thus completing the task of using one device in multiple cities. This is the simplest and essential difference between the two schemes. But the most regrettable thing is that both schemes have to open a bus card
Ticwatch 2 NFC after opening virtual bus card
Opening time and cost: The public beta of Huawei Pay's bus card function at the end of August 2016 only supports Shanghai for the time being; Xiaomi Pay was officially launched on September 1, claiming to support 34 city all-in-one cards, which is the largest number currently supported, but some cities and some models have not yet been launched; The public transport card of Samsung Smart Pay was officially launched in December 2016, and temporarily only supports Beijing and Shanghai. At the beginning of the service launch, Samsung and Xiaomi had 1 yuan and free card opening subsidies respectively. Now, the card opening fee is generally between 20 and 29 yuan.
Support devices: Samsung Smart Pay/Huawei Pay/Xiaomi Pay seen in the market all have the simulation capability of bus cards. The mobile phone models supported by the three manufacturers can be queried on their official websites. Samsung Smart Pay stamps , Xiaomi payment (in FAQ) stamp , Huawei Pay stamp 。 The latest bank and bus card support will generally appear in the forum and the development system first, and interested users can go to various forums to check.
In addition, OnePlus 3 also supports the Beijing All in One Card after the hydrogen OS public beta of the sixth version of the system. Both it and Xiaomi use snowball technology solutions. In terms of intelligent products, NFC analog bus cards are supported. At present, only Ticwatch 2 NFC (now only Beijing all-in-one card and Shenzhen Tong are supported) is available. Huawei watch 2 launched at the end of February may also be available. The Gear S3 series just launched by Samsung supports Samsung Smart Pay, but there is no bus card service for it in China.
Recharging and inquiry: In addition to checking the balance and recharging on their own apps, the bus cards simulated by these devices, like physical cards, can read the balance and query the transaction records through other NFC mobile phones. They can be recharged with Shenzhen's "Pengtao", Beijing's "e-recharging", or even the city all-in-one card of Zhifubao (but it has many compatibility problems).
Limitations and uses: Due to the security considerations of the bus card issuer and the bank, the bus card and bank card are bound to hardware, not user accounts. Once it is opened, the bus card will be bound to the mobile phone itself. The bus card will still be available after the phone is swiped, but after the phone is changed, the bus card cannot be transferred to the new mobile phone with the account. Most regrettably, no matter the scheme of physical card or NFC analog card is adopted, the original bus card cannot be bound, and a new bus card has to be reopened, and card refund is not supported.
Another "restriction" comes from the bus card itself, a tool that needs to work steadily and quickly. When you recharge and punch in, you can erase the internal data without networking, registered authentication or loss reporting. It is like paper money. If you lose it, you really lose it. No matter who it is, you can pick it up and use it directly.
The use of bus cards is much more than people think. In addition to buses and subways, parking lots/indoor parks/gas stations/some special stores in Beijing, ferries in Shanghai, living fees/libraries/special merchants in Suzhou, airport expressways/ferries/special merchants in Wuhan, roadside parking in Hangzhou, ferries/parking meters/special stores/some supermarkets and convenience stores in Guangzhou are all cold but hate to meet each other too late.
quick pass
UnionPay Quickpass is a contactless payment product based on bank cards launched by UnionPay, which corresponds to Paywave of Visa and Paypass of MasterCard. It is characterized by non-contact and password free micro payment, which is as simple and convenient as bus card. The current forms of flash payment, such as Apple Pay, are basically used by mobile phones instead of physical cards. The use process is to bind bank cards in mobile phones, and use small amount secret free, fingerprint or conventional passwords to consume through POS machines with flash payment targets.
Form of NFC technology and product technology
Technical route: Flash payment, after all, is a banking service with high requirements for security. In the field of intelligent hardware, around security and NFC, there are two main technical routes of flash payment: TSM and HCE. Their core is the SE security module mentioned in the above NFC science popularization, corresponding to the physical and virtual SE modules respectively:
TSM： The full name of Trusted Service Manager Trusted Service Management has been widely used since 2014. In view of the status quo that early Android had NFC but no SE security module, the manufacturer "opened its mind" by integrating SE security module with SIM card/TF card, etc., so that mobile phones and smart devices can replace physical cards for flash payment. The early mobile phones mentioned above "simulate" Bus card is also one of the products of this technology.
HEC： However, TSM is, after all, a solution that requires hardware replacement, and its actual implementation and impact are very limited. At about the same time, After Google added HEC (Host Card Emulation) technical support to Android 4.4, UnionPay in the middle and late 15 years mainly promoted HCE flash payment. By using the cloud server as an SE module (the origin of "cloud" in cloud flash payment), NFC mobile phones without security modules can directly use flash payment without hardware SE.
quick pass In just a few years, it has gone through several generations of development:
In the early days, the flash payment even used the method very much like a bus card, which requires users to go to the bank/ATM to deposit funds in an electronic cash account before using it;
Later, in order to save the load process, the flash payment was merged into the bank account;
Later, in order to save the trouble of carrying cards, the TSM and HEC technology paths mentioned above were derived. The NFC-SIM and NFC-SD cards equipped with security chips launched by UnionPay are designed to enable NFC mobile phones without SE module to provide flash payment function;
In order to save users from the trouble of replacing sim cards and purchasing additional hardware, UnionPay launched HEC cloud flash payment at the end of 2015. Without hardware transformation, it only needs bank app+ordinary NFC mobile phones to provide the flash payment function.
In addition to NFC, the flagship models of major mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi have their own SE modules. Apple Pay and Samsung Smart Pay, which were launched in China in February 2016, and Huawei and Xiaomi Pay in August and September of the same year, were also classified as part of cloud flash payment by UnionPay.
UnionPay has great expectations for flash payment. In addition to the crazy "iteration speed" above, almost all bank cards/credit cards in active service have their own flash payment function. As for POS upgrading, UnionPay is also upgrading at a crazy speed. As early as 2015, the proportion of POS machines supporting flash payment has exceeded 60%, and the number of terminals has reached 10.5 million by the end of 2016. The People's Bank of China announced that all POS machines could support contactless payment in May 2017.
Flash payment: In essence, flash payment has been very convenient, but it has been very troublesome just to let users know how to use it. In addition to the need for POS upgrade, staff training, and poor promotion effect, cloud flash payment has not been popularized. At the same time, the rapid popularity of Alipay and WeChat payment, which have failed to support UnionPay, made UnionPay flash payment very awkward before Apple Pay and other products came out.
In addition, it is estimated that most merchants are also on the side of online payment such as Alipay/WeChat. After all, UnionPay charges merchants for service when swiping cards... This also indirectly brings about the problem that many shop assistants will not use flash payment POS machines or are unwilling to use them. These are the important reasons why UnionPay supports the services of several manufacturers so much. After all, the flash payment function of these mobile phone manufacturers is essentially a virtual bank card, an extension of the original bank card, which does not change the original mode of the bank, and transaction information will not bypass the bank like WeChat Alipay.
Opponent of flash payment: Here we also mention a very strong competitor of NFC payment - MST (Magnetic Secure Transmission), which is a track simulation technology and was first developed by LoopPay. The latter was acquired by Samsung in February 2015, and joined the founder, Will Graylin. Samsung uses this technology on S6/S6 edge, Note 5/S6 edge+and S7/S7 edge in some regions.
Coil used by MST technology
Its principle is very simple and crude, because the traditional POS function recognizes the magnetic stripe information of the bank card. MST uses the coil to simulate the magnetic stripe information of different bank cards, and successfully makes the POS machine "think" that there is an ordinary bank card swiping. It is also a "touch and touch" card swiping similar to flash payment. The actual reading distance is about 10 cm. In addition to entering a password or signature, the experience is the same as that of bus card swiping and flash payment. Because there is no need to transform the existing POS machine and no training cost, it is the scheme that is compatible with the original equipment to the maximum extent.
If this technology is popularized, NFC flash payment will be stillborn, but this technology can almost be regarded as "bought out" by Samsung. Samsung is unlikely to "save" NFC flash payment to some extent by giving this technology as a selling point to competitors of the same kind.
usage method: Apple Pay、 In Samsung Smart Pay, Huawei Pay, Xiaomi Pay and other apps, users can add bank cards directly. Now four service providers can cover debit cards and credit cards of common big banks. In order to protect privacy, the virtual cards generated during the activation process and consumed later are different from the physical cards, and the latter is more like an electronic supplementary card. Unlike putting the card entity in the mobile phone, NFC flash payment can bind multiple cards at the same time without the physical card.
Function and use occasion/place: In any store that supports flash payment, the mobile phone with NFC flash payment can replace the physical card for consumption, and the consumption limit and password free setting are the same as the physical card. In terms of use occasions, it is still aimed at users in first tier cities. After all, the usage rate of flash payment itself in second tier and third tier cities is not high. Although Carrefour/Whole Family/7-11/OK Convenience Stores/Watsons, McDonald's/KFC/Burger King and other large chains almost all have UnionPay flash payment POS machines, the full support of POS machines claimed by the People's Bank of China will have to wait five months, and even in Shenzhen, some small convenience stores and stores have no flash payment target for their POS machines, or their employees do not know what flash payment is, There are many shop assistants who do not understand the flash payment mode of POS machine
For many people, the more practical function of NFC flash payment is to withdraw money without a card. On the ATM of the corresponding bank with flash payment target, select Apple Pay to withdraw money (who is more famous...). In theory, Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi machines can withdraw money through ATM. Of course, Samsung itself has MST, and ATM cards can also be used to withdraw money.
Security: For flash payment, although most banks have a limit line of not more than 1000 per day and various kinds of claims, after the flash payment physical card is opened for non secret payment, it does not need password verification, and can be used directly when others find it. Previously, the big news related to this was the ETC swipe door on the car. but In terms of security, flash payment on smart devices is more secure. After all, there are fingerprints and various lock screen passwords on mobile phones. Because both bus cards and flash payments involve device security chips, the bound bus cards and bank cards will still be in the machine after the machine is reset. It may be that the bus company is considering the interests, and the bank card can be manually unbound and rebound, but the bus card cannot be unbound and rebound.
NFC flash payment can replace physical cards, so it's really easy not to take physical cards out of the house. What's more, swiping cards with mobile phones/watches is a good opportunity to pack. However, in terms of practicality, these UnionPay flash payments are not as widely used as WeChat and Alipay's code scanning payment. Many small stores without POS machines will support WeChat and Alipay. The code scanning does not need to stick to the POS machine, and the cashier does not need to adjust the POS machine mode, and does not need to explain to the cashier (stall holder).
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