Data Validation Scheme Using Meaningless Reversible Degradation and NFC

Abstract

This paper presents a novel data validation system using meaningless reversible degradation and the Near-Field Communication (NFC) protocol. The NFC protocol is widely used as data exchange channel due to its technical properties, such as data transfer rate and transmission reliability. The proposed scheme exploits reversible degradation properties, using the systematic Berlekamp Reed-Solomon error correction algorithm and the NFC on three error correction levels: Low (∼ = 5%), Medium (∼ = 15%), and High (∼ = 25%). This new mechanism allows encoding data on a meaningless file, which can be posteriorly retrieved using an authorized NFC card. Thus, to retrieve and validate the file, the part that receives the corrupted file, and the authorizing part, must be physically near to allow decoding the file. Once the authorizing part removes the NFC card, the decoded file becomes meaningless again and is closed.