Gadget fans must be familiar with NFC. This feature is starting to be embedded in several cellphones, especially cellphones in the mid-range and flagship classes.
NFC supports contactless digital payment applications such as Samsung Pay or Apple Pay. But what exactly is NFC technology and how does it work?
NFC stands for “Near Field Communication” or it can also be interpreted as near field communication. The NFC feature requires two compatible devices, one acting as a transmitter and the other as a signal catcher.
There are two types of NFC-compatible devices, namely passive and active devices. Passive devices such as electronic money cards or other small transmitter devices that can only send information to other NFC devices without requiring power. This type of device does not need to process information received from other devices. They are also dependent aka require an active device to connect.
Meanwhile, active NFC devices can send or receive data. The most common example is a smartphone that has been equipped with the NFC feature. There are also card readers available on public transport or digital payment machines.
In addition to making payments via the Samsung Pay or Apple Pay terminal earlier, a smartphone equipped with NFC can also be used to read the remaining balance as well as top up an electronic money card, simply by attaching the card to the back of the cellphone.
Other uses of NFC include easily connecting other devices to a smartphone, such as a digital camera. With NFC, mobile phones can also be used as “tickets” for public transportation or entry to event venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 How NFC works
Judging from how it works, NFC is somewhat similar to bluetooth or WiFi which relies on radio waves to transmit information. In NFC, the technology used is the old type of Radio-frequency identification (RFID), which uses electromagnetic induction to transmit information. NFC can be used to induce an electric current in passive components to only transmit data.
The passive components don’t have to have power, they can rely on the electromagnetic field that the NFC active component produces when two components are brought close to each other. This is the difference between NFC and bluetooth.
NFC technology cannot charge between devices. However, the technology for sharing power or sharing power by gluing two devices together, uses the same basic technology principle as NFC.
The frequency that works when transmitting data via NFC is 13.56 megahertz. That means, data can be transferred at speeds ranging from 106, 212, up to 424 kilobits per second. It is quite fast in terms of data transfer between devices.
\u2022 NFC Mode
The current NFC standard has three different modes of operation. However, the most widely used is the peer-to-peer mode. This mode allows two NFC-enabled devices to exchange various information with each other. With this mode, both devices can switch states, from active when sending data, to passive when receiving data.
Then there is the read\/write mode (read\/write). In short, this mode can only transmit data in one direction. For example, smartphones, which normally act as active components, are connected to other devices to read information from electronic money cards or other passive components.
The last mode is card emulation. This mode is commonly used in digital payments, as NFC acts as a credit card to make payments easier. In some countries, this mode is also used for public transportation systems by tapping the phone into a card reader.
\u2022 Already have bluetooth, is NFC still important?
It is undeniable, there are still many people who are unfamiliar with NFC. Because, its function can still be replaced with Bluetooth which was first present. However, there are several advantages that NFC has over Bluetooth. One of them is on the power consumption side.
NFC consumes less power than bluetooth. Meanwhile, in terms of speed, bluetooth is still the champion. The maximum data transfer speed that can be done by NFC is 424 kilobits per second. While bluetooth 2.1 – a somewhat older version of bluetooth – can reach 2.1 Mbit per second.
In addition, NFC requires a very close physical distance than bluetooth. The distance should not be more than 10 cm to connect two NFC devices. Meanwhile, bluetooth can reach up to 10 meters.
However, NFC has another significant advantage, namely connection speed. NFC takes less than 10 seconds to connect two devices. This is one of the advantages of NFC technology compared to the most modern version of Bluetooth though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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