Vicinity Smartcards in Public Transport

|7 pages |29-11-2010 | | Not evaluated |
Price : €3.60

Presentation

Vicinity smartcards are defined by the ISO 15693 standard, which also define the Radio Frequency IDentification. This standard points out that these smartcards have to function at a frequency of 13,56 MHz.
The Smart Card Handbook (Rankl and Effing, 1997) tells us that most of the smartcards are passive, which means they do not have integrated energy source. It is only while entering in the field of a reader that they are able to function. For the vicinity smartcards, the functionality range is between 15 cm and 1,50 m and the magnetic field needed to allow them to work goes from 0,15 A/m to 5 A/m. These smartcards store data, and new data can be written during transmissions. Data transmissions occur when passing by beacons or through portals. The range of these cards being relatively important, several cards can easily be in a reader's field at the same time. That is why the ISO/IEC 15693 standard also describes the data transmission protocols and the anti-collision protocol.
This essay looks at how the use of vicinity smartcards in public transport will evolve in the coming years. Today smartcards are being used in most of the biggest public transport organisations, such as the RATP in Paris or TFL in London. However, the development of RFID and mobile phones have created new possibilities to improve the quality of the services currently being offered.

Extract

The use of contactless smartcards has brought a lot of improvements in transports: it has downsized the costs linked to ticketing management, increased payment efficiency, brought more comfort to the users and, above all, it has increased the speed of tickets validation, reducing the length of queues at check-points. A survey carried out by the RATP proved that the use of the Navigo pass allowed a passreader
data transmission four times faster than with a classic ticket with embedded magnetic tape. And it is taken for granted that the use of vicinity smartcards, given their bigger function range, could allow transferring data even faster. Moreover, the use of vicinity smartcards would be comfortable for disabled people, especially these using wheel chairs, who can hardly use the proximity card readers.
The vicinity smartcards’ superiority over proximity smartcards does not end there: not only do they allow to increase the communication range compared to the one allowed by the ISO 14443 standard, but they also bring economics advantages: at the same range as the one allowed by the ISO 14443 standard, vicinity smartcards reduce reader’s costs, which are of simpler conception.
Therefore, it is allowed to think that the contactless smartcards’ new generation, the vicinity smartcards, will be able firstly to compete with, and then to supplant the proximity smartcards.

Vicinity Smartcards in Public Transport Vicinity Smartcards in Public Transport
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Table of Contents

Introduction

1. From proximity smartcards to vicinity smartcards
1.1 Market development prospects
1.2 Benefits brought by contactless smartcards

2. Players involved and their objectives

3. Towards a fusion of vicinity smartcards with RFID and NFC
3.1 RFID
3.2 NFC

4. The near future of vicinity smartcards
4.1 Speed
4.2 Fraud fighting
4.3 Information and advertising
4.4 Luggage control

Conclusion

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