1 page.title=Host-based Card Emulation 2 page.tags="host card emulation", "hce","HostApduService","OffHostApduService","tap and pay" 3 4 @jd:body 5 6 7 <div id="qv-wrapper"> 8 <div id="qv"> 9 10 <h2>In this document</h2> 11 <ol> 12 <li><a href="#SecureElement">Card Emulation with a Secure Element</a></li> 13 <li><a href="#HCE">Host-based Card Emulation</a></li> 14 <li><a href="#SupportedProtocols">Supported NFC Cards and Protocols</a></li> 15 <li><a href="#HceServices">HCE Services</a> 16 </li> 17 <li><a href="#ImplementingService">Implementing an HCE Service</a> 18 </li> 19 <li><a href="#AidConflicts">AID Conflict Resolution</a> 20 </li> 21 <li><a href="#PaymentApps">Payment Applications</a> 22 </li> 23 <li><a href="#ScreenOffBehavior">Screen Off and Lock-screen Behavior</a></li> 24 <li><a href="#Coexistence">Coexistence with Secure Element Cards</a> 25 </li> 26 <li><a href="#HceSecurity">HCE and Security</a></li> 27 <li><a href="#ProtocolParams">Protocol parameters and details</a> 28 </li> 29 </ol> 30 31 </div> 32 </div> 33 34 35 36 <p>Many Android-powered devices that offer NFC functionality already support NFC card 37 emulation. In most cases, the card is emulated by a separate 38 chip in the device, called a <em>secure element</em>. Many SIM cards provided by 39 wireless carriers also contain a secure element.</p> 40 41 <p>Android 4.4 introduces an additional method of card emulation that does not 42 involve a secure element, called <em>host-based card emulation</em>. This allows any 43 Android application to emulate a card and talk directly to the NFC reader. This 44 document describes how host-based card emulation (HCE) works on Android and how you 45 can develop an app that emulates an NFC card using this technique.</p> 46 47 48 <h2 id="SecureElement">Card Emulation with a Secure Element</h2> 49 50 <p>When NFC card emulation is provided using a secure element, the card to be emulated 51 is provisioned into the secure element on 52 the device through an Android application. Then, when the user holds the 53 device over an NFC terminal, the NFC controller in the device routes all data 54 from the reader directly to the secure element. Figure 1 illustrates this concept.</p> 55 56 <img src="{@docRoot}images/nfc/secure-element.png" /> 57 <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 1.</strong> NFC card emulation with a secure element.</p> 58 59 <p>The secure element itself performs the communication with the NFC terminal, 60 and no Android application is involved in the transaction at all. After the 61 transaction is complete, an Android application can query the secure element 62 directly for the transaction status and notify the user.</p> 63 64 65 <h2 id="HCE">Host-based Card Emulation</h2> 66 67 <p>When an NFC card is emulated using host-based card emulation, the data is routed to 68 the host CPU on which Android applications are running directly, instead of routing the NFC 69 protocol frames to a secure element. Figure 2 illustrates how host-based card emulation 70 works.</p> 71 72 <img src="{@docRoot}images/nfc/host-based-card.png" /> 73 <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 2.</strong> NFC card emulation with a secure element.</p> 74 75 76 <h2 id="SupportedProtocols">Supported NFC Cards and Protocols</h2> 77 78 <div class="figure" style="width:147px"> 79 <img src="{@docRoot}images/nfc/protocol-stack.png"/> 80 <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 3.</strong> Android's HCE protocol stack.</p> 81 </div> 82 83 <p>The NFC standards offer support for many different protocols, and there are 84 different types of cards that can be emulated.</p> 85 86 <p>Android 4.4 supports several protocols that are common in the 87 market today. Many existing contactless cards are already based on these 88 protocols, such as contactless payment cards. These protocols are also 89 supported by many NFC readers in the market today, including Android NFC 90 devices functioning as readers themselves (see the {@link android.nfc.tech.IsoDep} class). 91 This allows you to build and deploy an end-to-end NFC solution 92 around HCE using only Android-powered devices.</p> 93 94 <p>Specifically, Android 4.4 supports emulating cards that are based on the 95 NFC-Forum ISO-DEP specification (based on ISO/IEC 14443-4) and process 96 Application Protocol Data Units (APDUs) as defined in the ISO/IEC 7816-4 97 specification. Android mandates emulating ISO-DEP only on top of the 98 Nfc-A (ISO/IEC 14443-3 Type A) technology. Support for Nfc-B (ISO/IEC 14443-4 99 Type B) technology is optional. The layering of all these specifications is 100 shown in the figure 3.</p> 101 102 103 104 <h2 id="HceServices">HCE Services</h2> 105 106 <p>The HCE architecture in Android is based around Android {@link android.app.Service} components 107 (known as "HCE services"). 108 One of the key advantages of a service is that it can run in the background without 109 any user interface. This is a natural fit for many HCE applications like loyalty or transit cards, 110 with which the user shouldn't need to launch the app to use it. 111 Instead, tapping the device against the NFC reader starts the correct service (if not already 112 running) and executes the transaction in the background. Of course, you are free 113 to launch additional UI (such as user notifications) from your service if that makes 114 sense.</p> 115 116 117 118 <h3 id="ServiceSelection">Service selection</h3> 119 120 <p>When the user taps a device to an NFC reader, the Android system needs to 121 know which HCE service the NFC reader actually wants to talk to. 122 This is where the ISO/IEC 7816-4 specification comes in: it defines a way to 123 select applications, centered around an Application ID (AID). An AID 124 consists of up to 16 bytes. If you are emulating cards for an existing NFC reader 125 infrastructure, the AIDs that those readers are looking for are typically 126 well-known and publicly registered (for example, the AIDs of payment networks 127 such as Visa and MasterCard).</p> 128 129 <p>If you want to deploy new reader infrastructure for your own application, you 130 will need to register your own AID(s). The registration procedure for AIDs is 131 defined in the ISO/IEC 7816-5 specification. Google recommends registering an 132 AID as per 7816-5 if you are deploying a HCE application for Android, as it will avoid 133 collisions with other applications.</p> 134 135 136 <h3 id="AidGroups">AID groups</h3> 137 138 <p>In some cases, an HCE service may need to register multiple AIDs to implement a 139 certain application, and it needs to be sure that it is the default handler for 140 all of these AIDs (as opposed to some AIDs in the group going to another 141 service).</p> 142 143 <p>An AID group is a list of AIDs that should be considered as belonging together 144 by the OS. For all AIDs in an AID group, Android guarantees one of the 145 following:</p> 146 147 <ul> 148 <li>All AIDs in the group are routed to this HCE service</li> 149 <li>No AIDs in the group are routed to this HCE service (for example, because the user 150 preferred another service which requested one or more AIDs in your group as 151 well)</li> 152 </ul> 153 154 <p>In other words, there is no in-between state, where some AIDs in the group can 155 be routed to one HCE service, and some to another.</p> 156 157 <h3 id="GroupsCategories">AID groups and categories</h3> 158 159 <p>Each AID group can be associated with a category. This allows Android to group 160 HCE services together by category, and that in turn allows the user to set 161 defaults at the category level instead of the AID level. In general, avoid 162 mentioning AIDs in any user-facing parts of your application: they do not mean 163 anything to the average user.</p> 164 165 <p>Android 4.4 supports two categories: {@link 166 android.nfc.cardemulation.CardEmulation#CATEGORY_PAYMENT} (covering payment 167 apps) and {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.CardEmulation#CATEGORY_OTHER} 168 (for all other HCE apps).</p> 169 170 171 172 <h2 id="ImplementingService">Implementing an HCE Service</h2> 173 174 <p>To emulate an NFC card using host-based card emulation, you need to create 175 a {@link android.app.Service} component that handles the NFC transactions. 176 177 <h3 id="CheckingforSupport">Checking for HCE support</h3> 178 179 <p>Your application can check whether a device supports HCE by checking for the 180 {@link android.content.pm.PackageManager#FEATURE_NFC_HOST_CARD_EMULATION} feature. You should use the 181 {@code <uses-feature>} tag in the manifest of your application to declare that your app 182 uses the HCE feature, and whether it is required for the app to function or not.</p> 183 184 <h3 id="ServiceImplementation">Service implementation</h3> 185 186 <p>Android 4.4 comes with a convenience {@link android.app.Service} class that can be used as a 187 basis for implementing a HCE service: the {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} class.</p> 188 189 <p>The first step is therefore to extend {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService}.</p> 190 191 <pre> 192 public class MyHostApduService extends HostApduService { 193 @Override 194 public byte[] processCommandApdu(byte[] apdu, Bundle extras) { 195 ... 196 } 197 @Override 198 public void onDeactivated(int reason) { 199 ... 200 } 201 } 202 </pre> 203 204 <p>{@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} 205 declares two abstract methods that need to be overridden and implemented.</p> 206 207 <p>{@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#processCommandApdu processCommandApdu()} 208 is called whenever a NFC reader sends an Application 209 Protocol Data Unit (APDU) to your service. APDUs are defined in the ISO/IEC 210 7816-4 specification as well. APDUs are the application-level packets being 211 exchanged between the NFC reader and your HCE service. That application-level 212 protocol is half-duplex: the NFC reader will send you a command APDU, and it 213 will wait for you to send a response APDU in return.</p> 214 215 <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> 216 The ISO/IEC 7816-4 specification also defines the concept of multiple logical channels, 217 where you can have multiple parallel APDU exchanges on separate logical channels. Androids 218 HCE implementation however only supports a single logical channel, so theres only a 219 single-threaded exchange of APDUs.</p> 220 221 222 <p>As mentioned previously, Android uses the AID to determine which HCE service the 223 reader wants to talk to. Typically, the first APDU an NFC reader sends to your 224 device is a "SELECT AID" APDU; this APDU contains the AID that the reader wants 225 to talk to. Android extracts that AID from the APDU, resolves it to an HCE service, 226 then forwards that APDU to the resolved service.</p> 227 228 <p>You can send a response APDU by returning the bytes of the response APDU from 229 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#processCommandApdu processCommandApdu()}. 230 Note that this method will be called on the main thread of 231 your application, which shouldn't be blocked. So if you can't compute and return 232 a response APDU immediately, return null. You can then do the necessary work on 233 another thread, and use the {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#sendResponseApdu 234 sendResponseApdu()} method defined 235 in the {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} class to send the response when you are done.</p> 236 237 <p>Android will keep forwarding new APDUs from the reader to your service, until 238 either:</p> 239 240 <ol> 241 <li>The NFC reader sends another "SELECT AID" APDU, which the OS resolves to a 242 different service;</li> 243 <li>The NFC link between the NFC reader and your device is broken.</li> 244 </ol> 245 246 <p>In both of these cases, your class's 247 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#onDeactivated onDeactivated()} 248 implementation is 249 called with an argument indicating which of the two happened.</p> 250 251 <p>If you are working with existing reader infrastructure, you need to 252 implement the existing application-level protocol that the readers expect in 253 your HCE service.</p> 254 255 <p>If you are deploying new reader infrastructure which you control as well, you 256 can define your own protocol and APDU sequence. In general try to limit the 257 amount of APDUs and the size of the data that needs to be exchanged: this makes 258 sure that your users will only have to hold their device over the NFC reader for 259 a short amount of time. A sane upper bound is about 1KB of data, which can 260 usually be exchanged within 300ms.</p> 261 262 263 264 <h3 id="ManifestDeclaration">Service manifest declaration and AID registration</h3> 265 266 <p>Your service must be declared in the manifest as usual, but some additional 267 pieces must be added to the service declaration as well.</p> 268 269 <p>First, to tell the platform that it is a HCE service implementing a 270 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} interface, your service declaration must contain an 271 intent filter for the {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#SERVICE_INTERFACE} action.</p> 272 273 <p>Additionally, to tell the platform which AIDs groups are requested by this 274 service, a {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService#SERVICE_META_DATA} 275 <code><meta-data></code> tag must be included in 276 the declaration of the service, pointing to an XML resource with additional 277 information about the HCE service.</p> 278 279 <p>Finally, you must set the {@code android:exported} attribute to true, and require the 280 {@code "android.permission.BIND_NFC_SERVICE"} permission in your service declaration. 281 The former ensures that the service can be bound to by external applications. 282 The latter then enforces that only external applications that hold the 283 {@code ""android.permission.BIND_NFC_SERVICE"} permission can bind to your service. Since 284 {@code ""android.permission.BIND_NFC_SERVICE"} is a system permission, this effectively 285 enforces that only the Android OS can bind to your service. </p> 286 287 <p>Here's an example of a {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} manifest declaration:</p> 288 289 <pre> 290 <service android:name=".MyHostApduService" android:exported="true" 291 android:permission="android.permission.BIND_NFC_SERVICE"> 292 <intent-filter> 293 <action android:name="android.nfc.cardemulation.action.HOST_APDU_SERVICE"/> 294 </intent-filter> 295 <meta-data android:name="android.nfc.cardemulation.host_apdu_service" 296 android:resource="@xml/apduservice"/> 297 </service> 298 </pre> 299 300 <p>This meta-data tag points to an {@code apduservice.xml} file. An example of such a file 301 with a single AID group declaration containing two proprietary AIDs is shown 302 below:</p> 303 304 <pre> 305 <host-apdu-service xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 306 android:description="@string/servicedesc" 307 android:requireDeviceUnlock="false"> 308 <aid-group android:description="@string/aiddescription" 309 android:category="other"> 310 <aid-filter android:name="F0010203040506"/> 311 <aid-filter android:name="F0394148148100"/> 312 </aid-group> 313 </host-apdu-service> 314 </pre> 315 316 <p>The <code><host-apdu-service></code> tag is required to contain a <code><android:description></code> 317 attribute that contains a user-friendly description of the service that may be 318 shown in UI. The <code><requireDeviceUnlock></code> attribute can be used to specify that the 319 device must be unlocked before this service can be invoked to handle APDUs.</p> 320 321 <p>The <code><host-apdu-service></code> must contain one or more <code><aid-group></code> tags. Each 322 <code><aid-group></code> tag is required to contain a <code>android:description</code> attribute that 323 contains a user-friendly description of the AID group that may be shown in UI. 324 Each <code><aid-group></code> tag must also have the android:category attribute set to 325 indicate the category the AID group belongs to, e.g. the string constants 326 defined by CardEmulation.CATEGORY_PAYMENT or CardEmulation.CATEGORY_OTHER. Each 327 <code><aid-group></code> must contain one or more <code><aid-filter></code> tags, each of which contains a 328 single AID. The AID must be specified in hexadecimal format, and contain an even 329 number of characters.</p> 330 331 <p>As a final note, your application also needs to hold the NFC permission, 332 {@link android.Manifest.permission#NFC} to be able to register as a HCE service.</p> 333 334 335 336 337 <h2 id="AidConflicts">AID Conflict Resolution</h2> 338 339 <p>Multiple {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.HostApduService} components 340 may be installed on a single device, and the same AID 341 can be registered by more than one service. The Android platform resolves AID 342 conflicts depending on which category an AID belongs to. Each category may have 343 a different conflict resolution policy. </p> 344 345 <p>For example, for some categories (like payment) the user may be able to select a 346 default service in the Android settings UI. For other categories, the policy may 347 be to always ask the user which service is to be invoked in case of conflict. To 348 query the conflict resolution policy for a certain category, see 349 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.CardEmulation#getSelectionModeForCategory 350 getSelectionModeForCategory()}.</p> 351 352 <h3 id="CheckingIfDefault">Checking if your service is the default</h3> 353 354 <p>Applications can check whether their HCE service is the default service for a 355 certain category by using the 356 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.CardEmulation#isDefaultServiceForCategory} API.</p> 357 358 <p>If your service is not the default, you can request it to be made the default. 359 See {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.CardEmulation#ACTION_CHANGE_DEFAULT}.</p> 360 361 362 363 <h2 id="PaymentApps">Payment Applications</h2> 364 365 <p>Android considers HCE services that have declared an AID group with the 366 "payment" category as payment applications. The Android 4.4 release contains a 367 top-level Settings menu entry called "tap & pay", which enumerates all such 368 payment applications. In this settings menu, the user can select the default 369 payment application that will be invoked when a payment terminal is tapped.</p> 370 371 <h3 id="RequiredAssets">Required assets for payment applications</h3> 372 373 <p>To provide a more visually attractive user experience, HCE payment applications 374 are required to provide an additional asset for their service: a so-called 375 service banner.</p> 376 377 <p>This asset should be sized 260x96 dp, and can be specified in your meta-data XML 378 file by adding the <code>android:apduServiceBanner</code> attribute to the 379 <code><host-apdu-service></code> tag, which points to the drawable resource. An example is 380 shown below:</p> 381 382 <pre> 383 <host-apdu-service xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 384 android:description="@string/servicedesc" 385 android:requireDeviceUnlock="false" 386 android:apduServiceBanner="@drawable/my_banner"> 387 <aid-group android:description="@string/aiddescription" 388 android:category="payment"> 389 <aid-filter android:name="F0010203040506"/> 390 <aid-filter android:name="F0394148148100"/> 391 </aid-group> 392 </host-apdu-service> 393 </pre> 394 395 396 397 <h2 id="ScreenOffBehavior">Screen Off and Lock-screen Behavior</h2> 398 399 <p>Current Android implementations turn the NFC controller and the application 400 processor off completely when the screen of the device is turned off. HCE 401 services will therefore not work when the screen is off.</p> 402 403 <p>HCE services can function from the lock-screen however: this is controlled by 404 the <code>android:requireDeviceUnlock</code> attribute in the <code><host-apdu-service></code> tag of your 405 HCE service. By default, device unlock is not required, and your service will be 406 invoked even if the device is locked.</p> 407 408 <p>If you set the <code><android:requireDeviceUnlock</code> attribute to "true" for your HCE 409 service, Android will prompt the user to unlock the device when you tap an NFC 410 reader that selects an AID that is resolved to your service. After unlocking, 411 Android will show a dialog prompting the user to tap again to complete the 412 transaction. This is necessary because the user may have moved the device away 413 from the NFC reader in order to unlock it.</p> 414 415 416 <h2 id="Coexistence">Coexistence with Secure Element Cards</h2> 417 418 <p>This section is of interest for developers that have deployed an application 419 that relies on a secure element for card emulation. Android's HCE implementation 420 is designed to work in parallel with other methods of implementing card 421 emulation, including the use of secure elements.</p> 422 423 <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> Android does not offer APIs for directly communicating with a secure element itself.</p> 424 425 <p>This coexistence is based on a principle called "AID routing": the NFC 426 controller keeps a routing table that consists of a (finite) list of routing 427 rules. Each routing rule contains an AID and a destination. The destination can 428 either be the host CPU (where Android apps are running), or a connected secure 429 element.</p> 430 431 <p>When the NFC reader sends an APDU with a "SELECT AID", the NFC controller parses 432 it and checks whether the AIDs matchesNo converter for: FOOTNOTE with any AID in 433 its routing table. If it matches, that APDU and all APDUs following it will be 434 sent to the destination associated with the AID, until another "SELECT AID" APDU 435 is received or the NFC link is broken.</p> 436 437 <p class="note"><strong>Note:</strong> 438 While ISO/IEC 7816-4 defines the concept of partial matches as well, this is currently not supported by Android HCE devices.</p> 439 440 <p>This architecture is illustrated in figure 4.</p> 441 442 443 <img src="{@docRoot}images/nfc/dual-mode.png" /> 444 <p class="img-caption"><strong>Figure 4.</strong> Android operating with both secure element 445 and host-card emulation.</p> 446 447 448 <p>The NFC controller typically also contains a default route for APDUs. When an 449 AID is not found in the routing table, the default route is used. Beginning with Android 450 4.4, the default route is required to be set to the host CPU. This 451 means that the routing table typically only contains entries for AIDs that need 452 to go to a secure element.</p> 453 454 <p>Android applications that implement a HCE service or that use a secure element 455 don't have to worry about configuring the routing table - that is taking care of 456 by Android automatically. Android merely needs to know which AIDs can be handled 457 by HCE services and which ones can be handled by the secure element. Based on 458 which services are installed and which the user has configured as preferred, the 459 routing table is configured automatically.</p> 460 461 <p>We've already described how to declare AIDs for HCE services. The following 462 section explains how to declare AIDs for applications that use a secure element 463 for card emulation.</p> 464 465 466 <h3 id="SecureElementReg">Secure element AID registration</h3> 467 468 <p>Applications using a secure element for card emulation can declare a so-called 469 "off host service" in their manifest. The declaration of such a service is 470 almost identical to the declaration of a HCE service. The exceptions are:</p> 471 472 <ul> 473 <li>The action used in the intent-filter must be set to 474 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.OffHostApduService#SERVICE_INTERFACE}</li> 475 <li>The meta-data name attribute must be set to 476 {@link android.nfc.cardemulation.OffHostApduService#SERVICE_META_DATA}</li> 477 <li><p>The meta-data XML file must use the <code><offhost-apdu-service></code> root tag</p> 478 479 <pre> 480 <service android:name=".MyOffHostApduService" android:exported="true" 481 android:permission="android.permission.BIND_NFC_SERVICE"> 482 <intent-filter> 483 <action android:name="android.nfc.cardemulation.action.OFF_HOST_APDU_SERVICE"/> 484 </intent-filter> 485 <meta-data android:name="android.nfc.cardemulation.off_host_apdu_ervice" 486 android:resource="@xml/apduservice"/> 487 </service> 488 </pre> 489 </li> 490 </ul> 491 492 <p>An example of the corresponding {@code apduservice.xml} file registering two AIDs:</p> 493 494 <pre> 495 <offhost-apdu-service xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 496 android:description="@string/servicedesc"> 497 <aid-group android:description="@string/subscription" android:category="other"> 498 <aid-filter android:name="F0010203040506"/> 499 <aid-filter android:name="F0394148148100"/> 500 </aid-group> 501 </offhost-apdu-service> 502 </pre> 503 504 <p>The <code>android:requireDeviceUnlock</code> attribute does not apply to off host services, 505 because the host CPU is not involved in the transaction and therefore cannot 506 prevent the secure element from executing transactions when the device is 507 locked.</p> 508 509 <p>The <code>android:apduServiceBanner</code> attribute must be used for off host services that 510 are payment applications as well in order to be selectable as a default payment 511 application.</p> 512 513 <h3 id="OffHostInvocation">Off host service invocation</h3> 514 515 <p>Android itself will never start or bind to a service that is declared as "off 516 host". This is because the actual transactions are executed by the secure 517 element and not by the Android service itself. The service declaration merely 518 allows applications to register AIDs present on the secure element.</p> 519 520 <h2 id="HceSecurity">HCE and Security</h2> 521 522 <p>The HCE architecture itself provides one core piece of security: because your 523 service is protected by the {@link android.Manifest.permission#BIND_NFC_SERVICE} 524 system permission, only the OS can 525 bind to and communicate with your service. This ensures that any APDU you 526 receive is actually an APDU that was received by the OS from the NFC controller, 527 and that any APDU you send back will only go to the OS, which in turn directly 528 forwards the APDUs to the NFC controller.</p> 529 530 <p>The core remaining piece is where you get the data from that you're sending back 531 to the NFC reader. This is intentionally decoupled in the HCE design: it does 532 not care where the data comes from, it just makes sure that it is safely 533 transported to the NFC controller and out to the NFC reader.</p> 534 535 <p>For securely storing and retrieving the data that you want to send from your HCE 536 service, you can for example rely on the Android Application Sandbox, which 537 isolates your app's data from other apps. For more details on Android security, 538 read 539 <a href="{@docRoot}training/articles/security-tips.html">Security Tips</a> 540 .</p> 541 542 <h2 id="ProtocolParams">Protocol parameters and details</h2> 543 544 <p>This section is of interest for developers that want to understand what protocol 545 parameters HCE devices use during the anti-collision and activations phases of 546 the NFC protocols. This allows them to build a reader infrastructure that is 547 compatible with Android HCE devices.</p> 548 549 <h3 id="AntiCollisionAct">Nfc-A (ISO/IEC 14443 type A) protocol anti-collision and activation</h3> 550 551 <p>As part of the Nfc-A protocol activation, multiple frames are exchanged.</p> 552 553 <p>In the first part of the exchange the HCE device will present its UID; HCE 554 devices should be assumed to have a random UID. This means that on every tap, 555 the UID that is presented to the reader will be a randomly generated UID. 556 Because of this, NFC readers should not depend on the UID of HCE devices as a 557 form of authentication or identification.</p> 558 559 <p>The NFC reader can subsequently select the HCE device by sending a SEL_REQ 560 command. The SEL_RES response of the HCE device will at least have the 6th bit 561 (0x20) set, indicating that the device supports ISO-DEP. Note that other bits in 562 the SEL_RES may be set as well, indicating for example support for the NFC-DEP 563 (p2p) protocol. Since other bits may be set, readers wanting to interact with 564 HCE devices should explicitly check for the 6th bit only, and <stront>not</strong> compare the 565 complete SEL_RES with a value of 0x20.</p> 566 567 <h3 id="IsoDepAct">ISO-DEP activation</h3> 568 569 <p>After the Nfc-A protocol is activated, the ISO-DEP protocol activation is 570 initiated by the NFC reader. It sends a "RATS" (Request for Answer To Select) 571 command. The RATS response, the ATS, is completely generated by the NFC 572 controller and not configurable by HCE services. However, HCE implementations 573 are required to meet NFC Forum requirements for the ATS response, so NFC readers 574 can count on these parameters being set in accordance with NFC Forum 575 requirements for any HCE device.</p> 576 577 <p>The section below provides more details on the individual bytes of the ATS 578 response provided by the NFC controller on a HCE device:</p> 579 580 <ul> 581 <li>TL: length of the ATS response. Must not indicate a length greater than 20 582 bytes.</li> 583 <li>T0: bits 5, 6 and 7 must be set on all HCE devices, indicating TA(1), TB(1) 584 and TC(1) are included in the ATS response. Bits 1 to 4 indicate the FSCI, 585 coding the maximum frame size. On HCE devices the value of FSCI must be 586 between 0h and 8h.</li> 587 <li>T(A)1: defines bitrates between reader and emulator, and whether they can be 588 asymmetric. There are no bitrate requirements or guarantees for HCE devices.</li> 589 <li>T(B)1: bits 1 to 4 indicate the Start-up Frame Guard time Integer (SFGI). On 590 HCE devices, SFGI must be <= 8h. Bits 5 to 8 indicate the Frame Waiting time 591 Integer (FWI) and codes the Frame Waiting Time (FWT). On HCE devices, FWI must 592 be <= 8h.</li> 593 <li>T(C)1: bit 5 indicates support for "Advanced Protocol features". HCE devices 594 may or may not support "Advanced Protocol features". Bit 2 indicates support 595 for DID. HCE devices may or may not support DID. Bit 1 indicates support for 596 NAD. HCE devices must not support NAD and set bit 1 to zero.</li> 597 <li>Historical bytes: HCE devices may return up to 15 historical bytes. NFC 598 readers willing to interact with HCE services should make no assumptions about 599 the contents of the historical bytes or their presence.</li> 600 </ul> 601 602 <p>Note that many HCE devices are likely made compliant with protocol requirements 603 that the payment networks united in EMVCo have specified in their "Contactless 604 Communication Protocol" specification. In particular:</p> 605 606 <ul> 607 <li>FSCI in T0 must be between 2h and 8h.</li> 608 <li>T(A)1 must be set to 0x80, indicating only the 106 kbit/s bitrate is 609 supported, and asymmetric bitrates between reader and emulator are not 610 supported.</li> 611 <li>FWI in T(B)1 must be <= 7h.</li> 612 </ul> 613 614 <h3 id="ApduExchange">APDU data exchange</h3> 615 616 <p>As noted earlier, HCE implementations only support a single logical channel. 617 Attempting to select applications on different logical channels will not work on 618 a HCE device.</p> 619