This chapter provides a description of the EMV contactless protocol. Section 3.1 describes the different documents the describe the EMV Contactless specifications. Section 3.2 describes the contactless interface of EMV Contactless cards. Section 3.3 gives a high level overview of the EMV Contactless transactions. Finally, 3.4 gives a complete description of the Mastercard PayPass specifications.
3.1 EMV Contactless Specification Documents
The EMV Contactless specification is defined by the EMV Contactless books [21-22], kernel specifications [23-24], additional documents have been published by Maestro [25] and also to some extent the EMV Contact book [26-27]. Figure 3.1 gives an overview of all the EMV book and …show more content…
NFC has a maximum speed of 424 kbps and is much slower than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, but considering NFC uses considerably less power to operate. The defined range for NFC is estimated to be approximately 20cm in theory, however in practice a range of 4cm is more common [33]. Both devices are capable of sending but only one device can send at a time, this is more commonly referred to as half-duplex mode.
RFID is a technology that can be used to read and write contactlessly from a reader to a RFID tag. NFC specification are compatible with RFID, as these specifications fall under the same umbrella, therefore NFC readers can communicate with RFID tags. Newer bank cards contain a RFID tag in order to perform contactless transactions.
The potential for privacy issues could also be a concern, one such issue that arises is that people can be tracked by these contactless cards and possibly linked to their identity without even making physical with the card, bank account numbers should also remain private so as to avoid identity fraud. As previously stated RFID does have a limited range and it is possible to assume the it is unlikely people will be tracked, however extending the range is a real possibility, meaning the privacy issue is one that could become a real …show more content…
The advantage of this is that it decreases the time needed for the customer to present the card to the reader.
An EMV contactless transaction begins with the selection of a combination of an application on the card and a kernel on the terminal. The application on an EMV contactless card is a software program that supports the commands, data items and communication protocol for cards as defined by its corresponding kernel in one of the seven kernel books. A kernel on the terminal is also a software program that supports the commands, data items and communication protocol for terminals as defined by one of the seven kernel books. Cards can have multiple applications and terminals can have support for multiple kernels. Typically, a terminal has support for more than one kernel for compatibility reasons, for example here in Ireland and Europe it is very common to support at least Mastercard and Visa, while a card typically has one or two