NFC : A review of technology , tags , applications and security Prasad

Smart phones are on a course to becoming a need instead of just a want as users are integrating the devices into every aspect of their lives. Smart phones adoption also increases due to the convergence of value-added services in them. One of the technologies which will enhance this convergence is Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a short range high frequency wireless communication technology. It exchanges data between two devices having maximum distance of 4 inches (~10 cm). It is based on RFID technology and has different types of operating modes. NFC enabled mobile phone can be used in health care application; but this introduces some attacks on application. Major attacks are relay attack, eavesdropping, data insertion, data modification and denial of service (DOS). These attacks must be prevented for making NFC based application more secure. This paper reviews the NFC technology, its communication modes and operating modes along with applications in different modes; risks in NFC and its possible countermeasure. It also reviews different types of NFC tags. Index Terms — NFC, Operating modes, Communication modes, Tags.