NFC device with multiple secure elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9894469-B2
Application number	US-201615080373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2016
Priority date	Aug 17, 2015
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

An NFC device includes first and second secure elements, an NFC router, and a processor. A method involves emulating, by the NFC router in response to a command from the processing device, an RF card emulation transaction. The RF card emulation transaction includes transmitting by the NFC router a command to the first and second secure elements to verify the presence of NFC transaction applications in the first and second secure elements. The method also includes receiving, by the NFC router, responses from the first and second secure elements and a new RF message from an NFC terminal. The responses indicate the NFC transaction applications stored by the first and second secure elements, and the new RF message relates to an NFC transaction. The new RF message is routed to the first or second secure element based on the responses.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
providing a near field communication (NFC) device having an NFC router, a processing device, a first secure element, and a second secure element;
in response to a command from the processing device, emulating by the NFC router a radio frequency (RF) card emulation transaction, the emulating including:
transmitting, by the NFC router, a command to the first and second secure elements to verify whether or not one or more NFC transaction applications are stored in the first and second secure elements;
receiving, by the NFC router, responses from the first and second secure elements indicating the one or more NFC transaction applications stored by the first and second secure elements;
based on the responses from the first and second secure elements, generating a global list of available NFC transaction applications;
storing the global list in a memory of the processing device; and
when two or more NFC transaction applications share a common identifier, accepting user input to prioritize an order in which the two or more NFC transaction applications sharing the common identifier will be selected;

receiving, by the NFC router, a new RF message from an NFC terminal, the new RF message relating to an NFC transaction;
routing the new RF message to the processing device;
analyzing the global list with the processing device;
based on the analyzing by the processing device, routing the new RF message to the first or second secure element based on the responses from the first and second secure elements and when the new RF message identifies the common identifier, routing the new RF message further based on the prioritized order; and
re-generating the global list of available NFC transaction applications based on at least one updated condition of the NFC device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
supplying the global list to the NFC terminal in response to the new RF message.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
after generating the global list of available NFC transaction applications, storing the global list in a memory of the NFC router.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the global list of available NFC transaction applications is generated by the processing device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more NFC transaction applications are payment applications, and wherein the command to the first and second secure elements includes a select proximity payment system environment (PPSE) command.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more NFC transaction applications is associated with a system code value, and wherein the command to the first and second secure elements includes a polling message including a selected system code value.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing, by the NFC router or by the processing device, one or more bits of a Select Acknowledge, Type A (SAK) value of each secure element, the one or more bits of the SAK value stored in a registry of the NFC router, the accessing performed to verify whether or not the one or more NFC transit applications are stored in the first and second secure elements.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a routing table based on said responses from the first and second secure elements; and
storing the routing table in a memory of said NFC router.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
prior to routing the new RF message to the first or second secure element, selecting the first or second secure element to which the new RF message is to be routed based on the routing table.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
prior to routing the new RF message to the first or second secure element, responding to the new RF message by communicating identifiers of at least two NFC transaction applications to the NFC terminal; and
in response to communicating the identifiers of the at least two NFC transaction applications, receiving from the NFC terminal a selection of one of the at least two NFC transaction applications.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the first and second secure elements stores an NFC payment transaction application.

12. A non-transitory digital storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processing device of a near field communication (NFC) device, perform a method, the method comprising:
in response to a command from the processing device, emulating by an NFC router of the NFC device a radio frequency (RF) card emulation transaction, the emulating including:
verifying whether or not any first NFC transaction applications are stored in a first secure element based on information received from the first secure element in response to at least one first command communicated from the NFC router;
verifying whether or not any second NFC transaction applications are stored in a second secure element based on information received from the second secure element in response to at least one second command communicated from the NFC router;
based on the information received from the first secure element and based on the information received from the second secure elements, generating a global list of available NFC transaction applications;
storing the global list in a memory of the processing device; and
when two or more NFC transaction applications share a common identifier, accepting user input to prioritize an order in which the two or more NFC transaction applications sharing the common identifier will be selected;

receiving, by the NFC router, a new RF message from an NFC terminal, the new RF message relating to an NFC transaction;
routing the new RF message to the processing device;
analyzing the global list with the processing device;
based on the analyzing by the processing device, routing the new RF message to one of the first secure element and the second secure element based on information in the global list, and when the new RF message identifies the common identifier, routing the new RF message further based on the prioritized order; and
based on at least one updated condition of the NFC device, regenerating the global list of available NFC transaction applications.

13. The non-transitory digital storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises:
supplying the global list of available NFC transaction applications to an NFC terminal in response to the new RF message.

14. The non-transitory digital storage medium of claim 12 , wherein at least one first NFC transaction application and at least one second NFC transaction are payment applications, wherein the at least one first command includes a first select proximity payment system environment (PPSE) command, and wherein the at least one second command includes a second PPSE command.

15. The non-transitory digital storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises:
accessing, by the NFC router or by the processing device, one or more bits of a Select Acknowledge, Type A (SAK) value of each secure element, the one or more bits of the SAK value stored in a registry of the NFC router, the accessing performed to verify whether or not any NFC transit applications are stored in the first and second secure elements.

16. The non-transitory digital storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises:
generating a routing table based on the information received from the first secure element and the information received from the second first secure element;
storing the routing table in a memory of the NFC router; and
prior to routing the new R

Assignees

• Proton World Int Nv
• St Microelectronics Rousset

Inventors

• Van Nieuwenhuyze Olivier
• Grimaud Jean Marc
• Mohammed Brahim Arach

Classifications

• G06K7/10237

  the reader and the record carrier being capable of selectively switching between reader and record carrier appearance, e.g. in near field communication [NFC] devices where the NFC device may function as an RFID reader or as an RFID tag · CPC title

• H04W12/02

  Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII] · CPC title

• H04W12/08

  Access security · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W40/02

  Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing · CPC title