We’ve been hearing about near-field communications (NFC) for years now but with no real visible deployment yet. The wireless chips have also been available, but lots more software work is needed—not to mention the adoption of NFC in the retail space and other application areas. NFC readers are required at the point of sale and in other locations where transactions for purchases, transportation, or access will take place.

NFC is showing up in some smart phones, and some vendors have NFC terminals in place. Once everything is in place, you will be able to wave your smart phone over the terminal or simply tap it to make the transaction happen. RIM’s BlackBerries already have adopted NFC technology (see the figure).

Inside Secure of France works in the NFC arena. In addition to wireless and security chips, the company makes related software. Its latest product, the Open NFC Stack for Google Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) cell phones, should give the whole movement a boost. This open-source protocol stack makes Ice Cream Sandwich easy to adapt to any NFC hardware.

Open NFC version 4.3.3 for Google Android 4.0 complies with the Ice Cream Sandwich release Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) for NFC and provides the NFC ecosystem with a consistent NFC application programming interface (API) and functionality to implement NFC independently of the underlying NFC hardware. It supports all the latest Android NFC features, including Android Beam and Wi-Fi Direct pairing connections. In addition to these new Android services, Open NFC provides access to unique features such as card emulation and multiple secure elements.

The complete, open-source hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for Inside’s MicroRead and SecuRead is available for download. The HAL allows the Open NFC protocol stack to be used immediately with Inside’s MicroRead and SecuRead NFC chip platforms and provides a convenient model for developing HALs for NFC chips from other manufacturers. It brings consistency across multiple platforms and devices as well as improved interoperability.

Open NFC already has been deployed in millions of smart phones, according to the company. Inside anticipates this latest version of Open NFC will be incorporated into Android-based smart phones and tablets that will ship in 2012 in preparation for 2013, which will be the big year for NFC’s rollout.

The stack supports several levels of functionality, from low-level RF control to high-level NFC Forum tag handling, peer-to-peer communications as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi pairing, interactions with single-wire protocol subscriber identity modules (SIMs) and other secure elements, and compatibility with smart cards and RFID tags based on Felica, Mifare, and ISO 14443 standards.

Since it was introduced in 2009, the Open NFC protocol stack has become recognized as a cost-effective, open-standards NFC middleware solution and has received significant industry support from a broad array of participants in the NFC ecosystem. Inside Secure’s Open NFC 4.3.3 for ICS can be downloaded free from the Open NFC Web site, www.open-nfc.org.

Inside Secure    
www.insidesecure.com