Systems and Methods for Providing NFC Secure Application Support in Battery-Off Mode When No Nonvolatile Memory Write Access is Available

• US 20150237584A1
• Filed: 05/04/2015
• Published: 08/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NXP USA, Inc. (NXP Semiconductors NV)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: ROYSTON, Philip Stewart
• Granted Patent: US 9,467,948 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/001 Energy harvesting or scavenging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00045 Authentication, i.e. circuits for checking compatibility between one component, e.g. a battery or a battery charger, and another component, e.g. a power source
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/79 for data transfer in combination with power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 by selectively disabling software applications

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and methods for NFC secure application support when an NFC device is executing in a battery-off or battery-low mode. In such a case, the NFC device may have enough power to execute some applications (e.g., read-only applications) but not enough power to execute others (e.g., applications that require data to be written). Embodiments of the present invention enable these lower-power applications to be executed by the NFC device even when a host communications device has no battery power.

Claims

1. A Near Field Communication (NFC) device, comprising:

a memory configured to store a list of application identifiers; and

a controller configured to;

determine whether an amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute a first application corresponding to a first application identifier in the list of application identifiers, and

transmit a portion of the list of application identifiers, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers includes the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute the first application, and wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers does not include the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is insufficient for the NFC device to execute the first application.

2. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive a request for the portion of the list of application identifiers from a second NFC device.

3. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

access information in the list of application identifiers to determine whether the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute the first application.

4. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the NFC device is coupled to a battery of a host device, and wherein the battery is configured to provide the power available to the NFC device.

5. The NFC device of claim 4, wherein the NFC device is further configured to:

check a power level of the battery to determine a power mode.

6. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers contains a field indicating whether the first application is executable in a low power mode.

7. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the first application is from among a plurality of applications, and wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine a second application from among the plurality of applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute, and wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers includes the second application identifier responsive to a second determination that the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute the second application.

8. The NFC device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

instruct power to be supplied to a device storing the first application in response to receiving a request to execute the first application.

9. A Near Field Communication (NFC) device, comprising:

a memory configured to store a list of application identifiers corresponding to a plurality of applications; and

a controller configured to;

determine applications from among the plurality of applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute, and

transmit a portion of the list of application identifiers, wherein respective application identifiers in the portion of the list of application identifiers correspond to respective applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute.

10. The NFC device of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine whether an amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute a first application from among the plurality of applications corresponding to a first application identifier in the list of application identifiers.

11. The NFC device of claim 10, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers includes the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute the first application.

12. The NFC device of claim 10, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers does not include the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the NFC device does not have sufficient power to execute the first application.

13. The NFC device of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive a request for the portion of the list of application identifiers from a second NFC device.

14. The NFC device of claim 9, wherein the controller is further configured to:

access information in the list of application identifiers to determine whether the amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute a first application from among the plurality of applications corresponding to a first application identifier in the list of application identifiers.

15. The NFC device of claim 9, wherein the list of application identifiers contains a plurality of fields indicating whether the plurality of applications can be executed in a low power mode.

16. A method, comprising:

accessing, using a processing device, a list of application identifiers corresponding to a plurality of applications;

determining, using the processing device, applications from among the plurality of applications that a Near Field Communication (NFC) device has sufficient power to execute, and

transmitting, using the processing device, a portion of the list of application identifiers, wherein respective application identifiers in the portion of the list of application identifiers correspond to respective applications that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining whether an amount of power available to the NFC device is sufficient for the NFC device to execute a first application from among the plurality of applications corresponding to a first application identifier in the list of application identifiers.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers includes the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the NFC device has sufficient power to execute the first application.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the portion of the list of application identifiers does not include the first application identifier responsive to a determination that the NFC device does not have sufficient power to execute the first application.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a request for the portion of the list of application identifiers from a second NFC device.