Near Field Communication, or NFC for short, is an internationally recognized transmission standard. Near-field radio technology describes the transmission of data, usually over a short distance of a few centimetres, and is exclusively wireless, not wired. Communication between transmitter and receiver is kept intuitive with NFC. In practice, for example, a smartphone is simply held close to the receiver module. Once both sides are activated, the user no longer has to pay attention to anything; both devices pair automatically and exchange data with each other independently. Also common practice: NFC tags. These are data carriers on which different functions can be stored. If the smartphone is within range of these tags, the function stored there is called up and carried out on the respective end device.

Security is at the forefront of Near Field Communication

However, the NFC standard can only achieve speeds of up to 424 kilobytes per second. Data transfer is therefore much slower than with related technologies such as Bluetooth or WLAN. On the other hand, security is a clear priority with this technology. And this makes NFC the ideal basis for cashless payment systems or access control. In addition to possible encryption of the wireless connection, a certain degree of security is already built into the standard thanks to the aforementioned short range. An uninvited connection cannot be established remotely during the purchase process at the checkout. Disadvantage: If the end device with the stored NFC information is stolen, the new user can often continue shopping without any problems.

Possible applications of NFC

• Reading information using an NFC device. The data to be retrieved is stored on a passive memory, so communication is one-way. Example: Additional information on products.

• Reading of information from an NFC end device by an active NFC medium. For example, the reading of the electronic concert ticket stored on an NFC smartphone by an NFC terminal.

• The bidirectional, i.e. two-way, exchange of data between two NFC devices. Example: A modern POS system supports this type of transmission. On the one hand, the account information and purchase information are transmitted, then forwarded by the recipient (POS system) to the bank or telephone provider for verification and then returned to the smartphone as a purchase confirmation from the POS system.

In principle, NFC is based on RFID technology, although this has already become established in industry. In contrast to NFC, RFID solutions have been used in intralogistics and logistics for years. Much greater information density is possible in a small space and any commercially available scanner can retrieve the stored information. Disadvantage: In contrast to the NFC standard, RFID is exclusively passive. Further information can be found under RFID. Image source: © Artur Marciniec - Fotolia.com