Terms, Definitions, and Symbols

ALL_REQ

NFC-A polling command, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 short frame command WupA (0x52)

ALLB_REQ

NFC-B polling command, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 command WupB

APDU

Application Protocol Data Unit, used in command-response pairs to exchange I (information), R (receive ready) or S (supervisory) blocks.

ATTRIB

PICC selection command, Type B

ATQA

Answer To ReQuest A, ISO 14443-3 term, equivalent to NFC term SENS_RES

ATQB

Answer To ReQuest B, ISO 14443-3 term, equivalent to NFC term SENSB_RES

CC

Capability Container, contains management data and is stored inside a read-only EF file. This EF is located inside the NDEF tag application. Default (or basic) file ID for this file (for NFC) is 0xE103. See NFC Type 4 Tag Operation Specification and ISO/IEC 7816-4 for more information.

CE

Card Emulation, one of the three modes offered by NFC devices. In this optional mode of NFC operation, an NFC Forum device is considered to be a card emulation platform only when it is emulating a Type 3, Type 4A or Type 4B tag platform. Emulation of any other cards or tags is outside the scope of the NFC Forum Brand Promise.

DEP

Data Exchange Protocol, an abstracted operational layer that uses either ISO or NFC protocols to exchange data. Thus, two terms can be created with this acronym: ISO-DEP and NFC-DEP. In the context of this document, after activation and selection of the emulated card and before deactivation, ISO-DEP is used exclusively to exchange data between the reader/writer (PCD) and the tag platform (PICC).

EF

Elementary File, a set of data objects, records or units sharing the same file identifier and the same security attributes

File Identifier

2-byte data element used to address a file

fc

Carrier frequency, in the context of NFC/HF RFID, is 13.56 MHz ±7 kHz. This is the fundamental transmit frequency of the reader/writer (also called PCD).

Initiator

Generator of the RF field and source of the beginning of the NFCIP-1 communication

MIME

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

Modulation Index, m

Signal amplitude ratio of [(peak – minimum) / (peak + minimum)] or [(1 – b) / (1 + b)], where b is the ratio between the modulated amplitude and the initial signal amplitude. The index, m, is defined per protocol type for both downlink and uplink and is generally expressed as a percentage (for example, Type A uses m = 100%, Type B uses m = 8 to 14%)

NDEF

NFC Data Exchange Format

NFC

Near Field Communication

PCB

Protocol Control Byte, used for conveying information required to control data transmission of blocks during the exchange of command-response APDU pairs. Bit coding of this byte and usage rules are found in ISO/IEC FDIS 14443-4.

PCD

Proximity Coupling Device (also commonly referred to as reader/writer)

PICC

Proximity Integrated Circuit Card (also commonly referred to as tag, tag platform, or transponder)

PUPI

Pseudo Unique PICC Identifier (randomly generated or static number returned by PICC as part of the response to REQB, WupB, ALLB_REQ or SENSB_REQ)

RTD

Record Type Definition

SAK

Select AcKnowledge (from ISO 14443-3), in NFC terms this is also called SEL_RES

SDD_RES

Equivalent to ISO 14443-3 response to SDD_REQ, and is complete NFCID1 CLn + BCC (if cascade level 1 (single size UID) or indicates NFCID1 is incomplete in the response and further cascade levels must be completed to obtain complete NFCID1+BCC.

SDD_REQ

Equivalent to ISO 14443-3 Type A anticollision sequence. Comprised of SEL_CMD, SEL_PAR and n data bits coded based on cascade level specified by SEL_CMD and calculated by value of SEL_PAR

SEL_RES

Equivalent to ISO 14443-3 SAK response

SENS_REQ

NFC-A polling command, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 short frame command REQ_A (0x26)

SENS_RES

NFC-A polling response, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 ATQA

SENSB_RES

NFC polling command response, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 ATQB

SENSB_REQ

Polling command, equivalent to ISO 14443-3 command REQ_B

Single Device Detection (SDD)

Algorithm used by the reader/writer to detect one out of several targets in its RF field (Type A anticollision, from ISO/IEC 14443-3)

T4T

Type 4Tag

Tag Platform

Responds to reader/writer (PCD) commands by using load modulation scheme (passive operation)

TLV

Type Length Value

UID

Unique IDentifier, a randomly generated or static number returned by Type A PICC as part of the response to REQA, WupA, ALL_REQ or SENS_REQ. It must be 4, 7, or 10 bytes long.