Near Field Communication (NFC)

Near Filed Communication (NFC) is a close range radio communication protocol used for very sensitive applications. It was jointly developed by Sony and Philips. The standard specifies ways to establish P2P(Peer-to-Peer) communication links for data exchange. After the P2P network has been configured, another wireless communication technology, such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, can be used for longer range communication or for transfering larger amounts of data. Its development was parallel to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), but both differ in many ways. NFC offers a very short range as compared to RFID. This is an added advantage in the sense that it requires very little transmission power and cheap transmitters can be used for the purpose. Hence it is very suitable for Smartcard like applications. It can also work in both active and passive modes. NFC works on a frequency range of 13.56 MHz. It offers a baud rate of 106 kbps to 424kbps. The transmission is made from a frequency of 13.56MHz inductively, hence it uses high magnetic field. At a transaction only two participants can be involved - one transmitter (initiator) and one receiver (target). The transmission can be either in active fashion or passive fashion. Both have their own merits and demerits. The NFC transmission runs helping duplex, i.e. that one of the two devices can send only in each case or receive at a time.