Host-Based Card Emulation: Development, Security, and Ecosystem Impact Analysis

A Tokenization-Based Communication Architecture for HCE-Enabled NFC Services

“…Currently, many Smartphone OSs support HCE, such as Android 4.4 (KitKat) and higher, Blackberry OS 7 and higher, and Microsoft Windows 10 [12]. HCE functionality is located in libraries and APIs of OS, which help developers to control the NFC interface and send commands to NFC devices [13]. As illustrated in Figure 2, an NFC controller routes the data to host CPU instead of SE and, on host CPU, OS applications run which can process the related NFC communication.…”

“…The motivation behind HCE technology is its independence from hardware-based SE alternatives. In the case of hardware-based SEs, APDU commands received from an NFC reader are passed to the application on the SE of Smartphone with the help of an NFC controller, so that the SE processes the APDU commands and sends responses [13]. In case of HCE technology, the received APDU commands are passed to the active NFC application by the NFC controller as illustrated in Figure 2, and the mobile application processes the APDU commands received from NFC reader.…”

“…With respect to computing capacity, storage capacity, deployment complexity, and cost, HCE-based NFC services are more advantageous when compared with hardware-based SEs [13]. Moreover, in terms of NFC ecosystem and business models, HCE-based solutions are independent of MNOs, Service Providers, and TSM (Trusted Service Manager); hence HCE technology can be considered as a game changer [14].…”

“…As a matter of fact, in order to complete an NFC transaction more rapidly, the Smartphone's Internet connection should be as fast as possible (e.g., 4G, even 5G) [14]. In addition, another study [13] states that since the credentials can be exposed by malwares potentially resident on the device, the Full Cloud solution is not secure enough, and it increases risk especially in monetary applications.…”

State of the Art, Trends and Future of Bluetooth Low Energy, Near Field Communication and Visible Light Communication in the Development of Smart Cities

“…For this reason, software architecture was developed in 2012 designed to emulate the security element without the need for a physical chip within devices. This solution, called Host Card Emulation (HCE) [50], provides a secure channel of communication between the NFC reader, a mobile application installed in the device and the payment terminal. This has opened up the possibility for developing different NFC payment applications that have been implemented by MasterCard [51] and Visa [52] and the major banks of the world that use their own applications or properties such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, PayPal, etc.…”