HF-RFID vs. NFC - Can an NFC-enabled mobile phone read high frequency RFID tags?
I see lots of forums that say RFID is different than NFC. I absolutely agree with this as both have different standards and operate on different frequencies.
After some further research, I found that some RFID standards (HF-RFID) exist in the 13.56 MHz frequency band, which is the same frequency as NFC uses (see here). However, I did not find anything that clearly says, that NFC devices and HF-RFID are interoperable. Also, I have seen one online video where someone is reading an HF-RFID tag using Samsung NFC enabled mobile.
I understand that both NFC and RFID uses radio frequency.
My question is, can HF-RFID (13.56 MHz) tags be read with an NFC-enabled mobile phone?
And also, HF-RFID reader can also used to read NFC tag?
Has anyone tested this and give any link, where it confirmed that its possible?
Answer
NFC does not only share the same frequency band (13.56 MHz) but it is based on HF-RFID standards.
Specifically, the NFC interface protocol standard (ISO/IEC 18092 / NFCIP-1) uses components from the RFID standards ISO/IEC 14443 (Type A) and JIS X 6319-4. This essentially merges the technologies MIFARE (by NXP) and FeliCa (by Sony). In addition ISO/IEC 21481 (NFCIP-2) defines compatibility/coexistence mechanisms between NFC and other HF-RFID standards (such as ISO/IEC 15693)
NFCIP-1 defines two communication modes: active and passive NFC peer-to-peer mode at tree different communication speeds (106kbps, 212kbps and 424kbps).
- Passive P2P mode at 106kbps uses the same modulation, coding, framing, and anticollision primitives as ISO/IEC 14443A. One side (one device) operates in a mode that is similar to a ISO/IEC 14443A reader and the other side (other device) operates in a mode that is similar to a ISO/IEC 14443A card.
- Passive P2P mode at 212kbps and 424kbps uses the same modulation, coding, framing, and anticollision primitives as JIS X 6319-4. One side (one device) operates in a mode that is similar to a JIS X 6319-4 reader and the other side (other device) operates in a mode that is similar to a JIS X 6319-4 card.
- Active P2P mode at 106kbps uses the same modulation, coding, and framing(?) as the reader-side of ISO/IEC 14443A.
- Active P2P mode at 212kbps and 424kbps uses the same modulation, coding, and framing (?) as the reader-side of JIS X 6319-4.
This means that NFC devices that support passive P2P mode also support all the protocol primitives to operate as ISO/IEC 14443A and JIS X 6319-4 readers as well as cards. In fact, an NFC device that waits to be activated by another NFC device in passive peer-to-peer mode will also be detectable by an HF-RFID reader (that polls for tags of the respective standard).
Beyond that, the NFC Forum Analog and Digital Protocol specifications also define a reader/writer mode and card-emulation mode that more or less supports various other HF-RFID standards.
In practice, NFC phones typically support at least access to some ISO/IEC 14443 transponders and FeliCa (JIS X 6319-4) cards. The reason for this is that all NFC tags are essentially RFID memory tags based on these "HF-RFID" standards.
Android NFC phones can typically detect and read at least transponders that implement the anti-collision and activation of ISO/IEC 14443-3 (though there are some limitations with Type B), Topaz (thats's a variation of ISO/IEC 14443A), FeliCa (JIS X 6319-4) cards, and ISO/IEC 15693 transponders. Some also support MIFARE Classic cards (which use a protocol similar to ISO/IEC 14443-3A) and B' (a variation of ISO/IEC 14443B). Recent Android NFC devices are also capable of emulating smartcards based on ISO/IEC 14443-4 (typically Type A).
However, one needs to keep in mind that the antennas (and the HF power-supply in general) in NFC smartphones are usually designed to work with small, low-power NFC tags. This often results in bad performance with contactless smartcards (e.g. insufficient energy transfer to power up the card or to perform certain crypto operations, tag-to-reader signal not picked up by the NFC phone, etc.)