Near Field Communication Ecosystem Research Articles

An analysis of trusted service manager development modes by mobile operating system designers in Taiwan

A trusted service manager (TSM) mediates between service providers, mobile network operators (MNOs), and the secure element (SE) issuer. As a facilitator to accelerate the development of the Near Field Communication (NFC) application ecosystem, such as mobile payments, e-tickets, etc., the TSM and its issues have received increased attention in recent years. In this study, the TSM development modes are analyzed under the challenges of mobile operating system designers (OSD) by an analytical network process. The research framework for developing a TSM is constructed by four main criteria and twelve sub-criteria through a literature review. Based on the authors’ previous work, five possible developing modes of TSMs are set as alternatives. An analytic network process (ANP) framework is proposed, and expert questionnaires are designed. Eighteen experts in NFC-related domains, including MNO, bank, smart card, and TSM stakeholders, were interviewed, and a proper developing mode for TSM in Taiwan was obtained. All these experts are in businesses related with TSM or are familiar with the TSM ecosystem.The analytical results not only include the ranks of four main criteria and twelve sub-criteria but also reveal that experts expect “Cooperation mode” to be the best alternative for developing a TSM in Taiwan. The explanations for the ranks are discussed with the current NFC ecosystem in Taiwan. The research framework for developing a TSM in this study is also expected to be applied to different countries, as developing modes of a TSM are generally multiple-criteria decision-making issues. Developing modes of a TSM for other countries could be implemented by changing the criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives of this research structure according to a country’s own political, NFC-related business environment or development stage of the NFC industry. In conclusion, this study provides academic and managerial implications of the results showing why “Cooperation mode” could be the best alternative to develop a TSM in Taiwan. This study’s contributions are as follows. First, an ANP network of TSM development is constructed, and it can be applied to other countries with similar developing mode analysis processes. Second, a proper developing mode of a TSM in Taiwan based on the views of different experts is uncovered.

The Survey on Near Field Communication.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology that offers great and varied promise in services such as payment, ticketing, gaming, crowd sourcing, voting, navigation, and many others. NFC technology enables the integration of services from a wide range of applications into one single smartphone. NFC technology has emerged recently, and consequently not much academic data are available yet, although the number of academic research studies carried out in the past two years has already surpassed the total number of the prior works combined. This paper presents the concept of NFC technology in a holistic approach from different perspectives, including hardware improvement and optimization, communication essentials and standards, applications, secure elements, privacy and security, usability analysis, and ecosystem and business issues. Further research opportunities in terms of the academic and business points of view are also explored and discussed at the end of each section. This comprehensive survey will be a valuable guide for researchers and academicians, as well as for business in the NFC technology and ecosystem.

A Secure Cloud-Based NFC Mobile Payment Protocol

Near Field Communication (NFC) is one the most recent technologies in the area of application development and service delivery via mobile phone. NFC enables the mobile phone to act as identification and a credit card for customers. Dynamic relationships of NFC ecosystem players in an NFC transaction process make them partners in a way that sometimes they should share their access permissions on the applications that are running in the service environment. One of the technologies that can be used to ensure secure NFC transactions is cloud computing which offers wide range advantages compare to the use of a Secure Element (SE) as a single entity in an NFC enabled mobile phone. In this paper, we propose a protocol based on the concept of NFC mobile payments. Accordingly, we present an extended version of the NFC cloud Wallet model [14], in which, the Secure Element in the mobile device is used for customer authentication whereas the customer's banking credentials are stored in a cloud under the control of the Mobile Network Operator (MNO). In this circumstance, Mobile Network Operator plays the role of network carrier which is responsible for controlling all the credentials transferred to the end user. The proposed protocol eliminates the requirement of a shared secret between the Point-of-Sale (POS) and the Mobile Network Operator before execution of the protocol, a mandatory requirement in the earlier version of this protocol [16]. This makes it more practicable and user friendly. At the end, we provide a detailed analysis of the protocol where we discuss multiple attack scenarios.

Cloud-based NFC Mobile Payments

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a shortrange radio communication technology that enables the contactless method of data transmission for mobile phones, tablets, PDAs, laptops, PCs, etc. One of the main features of NFC technology is that it provides contactless payments. People can use their NFC enabled digital devices to pay for products and services. They are also able to use NFC applications such as loyalty and ticketing apps. Secure and cost beneficial implementation as well as adoption of NFC technology has caused a delay regarding its popularity and usability amongst people. NFC payment is mostly on trial in different countries to examine the consequences of the collaboration between involved parties and also to investigate if people accept this new method of payment. Managing different NFC applications which contains sensitive information as well as not having complete set of standards to finalize the relationships between ecosystem stakeholders has created some issues that address the ownership, card personalization, manageability and flexibility of the NFC ecosystem. In this paper, we discuss different Secure Element (SE) architectures and argue that using the Cloud technology in mobile payments will resolve some of the current issues in NFC payments.

The impact of near field communication on tourism

Purpose– Near field communication (NFC) is currently perceived to be one of the most promising technologies for the future and will most likely become the standard in mobile devices in the years to come. Due to the novel nature of this technology, the assessment of its importance for the tourism industry is still relatively unclear. The author is one of the first to focus on NFC in tourism, with the aim of introducing NFC technology and drafting first responses to the following questions: what benefit can NFC technology have for tourism and what functionalities can it trigger? What are the possible future applications in tourism and what challenges will tourism be faced with in this respect?Design/methodology/approach– The potential of NFC for the tourism industry is outlined in an extensive literature research, as well as in the presentation and discussion of several pilot projects and case studies.Findings– The paper provides an overview of NFC functionalities and presents a first insight into the range of application for this technology in the tourism industry. The NFC ecosystem is examined and operative and strategic effects for companies, as well as the impacts for tourists, are analysed.Practical implications– NFC has a huge potential and offers a vast field of possible applications for the tourism industry. The technology must be seen, however, as an enabler that cannot solve problems from a supplier perspective, or increase convenience from a consumer perspective by itself. This paper helps to understand the complexity of NFC as a technology, the need for a common understanding and vision of its ecosystem, consistent business models which generate additional benefit, as well as the combination of market push-and-pull effects with regard to adoption and diffusion.Social implications– Modern society is virtually inconceivable without mobile devices and the consequent use of mobile services. The multitude of technologies incorporated in the tiniest space has turned mobile phones, and smart phones in particular, into the Swiss knives of our times. NFC could change the way we interact, share, exchange and retrieve information.Originality/value– Little research has so far been carried out on this topic and the author is one of the first to focus on NFC in tourism so far.

A Proposed NFC Payment Application

Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is based on a short range radio communication channel which enables users to exchange data between devices. With NFC technology, mobile services establish a contactless transaction system to make the payment methods easier for people. Although NFC mobile services have great potential for growth, they have raised several issues which have concerned the researches and prevented the adoption of this technology within societies. Reorganizing and describing what is required for the success of this technology have motivated us to extend the current NFC ecosystem models to accelerate the development of this business area. In this paper, we introduce a new NFC payment application, which is based on our previous “NFC Cloud Wallet” model [1] to demonstrate a reliable structure of NFC ecosystem. We also describe the step by step execution of the proposed protocol in order to carefully analyse the payment application and our main focus will be on the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) as the main player within the ecosystem.

A Role-Based Service Level NFC Ecosystem Model

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short range wireless communication technology allowing to communicate mobile devices within close proximity. It provides opportunity for service providers to offer various value added services to customers. NFC technology allows the usage of wide range of applications and eliminates the obligation to carry additional components other than the mobile device such as credit or payment cards, tickets, identification cards or keys. Despite its technological advantages over alternative ones, the NFC business ecosystems and services are yet to take off. The problems mainly arise with the business issues triggered by different and mostly conflicting needs of many actors in the ecosystem and several additional technical issues. In this study, by adopting a role-based service ecosystem modeling, we propose an NFC ecosystem model which perfectly specifies the roles in the ecosystem, and defines set of activities for each role, and communication structure. We analyzed NFC ecosystem in three phases as pre-installation, installation, and service usage. We have defined the activities and communication structure in the first two phases, and finally investigated the service usage phase in three different operating modes of NFC. After giving the details of the proposed ecosystem model, two use cases are given to validate the developed ecosystem model. We complete our study by discussing the requirement satisfaction.