The card emulation, in other words the imitation of cards, is now the most interesting mode for access control in particular. Namely because the smartphone can adopt smartcard functions such as Mifare Classic and Mifare DESfire. In other words: a smartphone can open doors in this way.
Ready for the NFC smartphone future
The new NFC application from SimonsVoss now makes it possible to make this vision reality for a wide range of practical applications: for example, it can furnish the users’ smartphone with access authorisations via mobile phone networks and allow them NFC-based access to the renowned SimonsVoss locks – in other words to digital locking cylinders, digital Smart Handles and digital Smart Relays.
A practical application example: in the past, carers and maintenance personnel had to procure the corresponding keys for their duties from a key depot and return them again afterwards. This was very time consuming and valuable working time was wasted every time.
With the new NFC-based key distribution procedure from SimonsVoss, access authorisations can now be sent directly to the employees’ smartphones from the headquarters on a daily basis and, in emergencies, even for limited periods of time. At the place it is used, the mobile phone then communicates with the corresponding SimonsVoss lock components via an NFC interface. If the respective authorisations exist, the doors, gates and barriers are opened.
Access technology via app
From a technical perspective, it functions extremely easily from the user’s point of view: the users download the SimonsVoss MobileKey app from the Apple Appstore to their iPhone (soon to be available for Android-based smartphones too). The locking systems administrator now assigns the lock authorisations to his users as usual. Whenever something changes for a user with an NFC smartphone, a new smartcard data set (MIFARE® Classic and in the future also MIFARE® DESFire) is generated automatically and pushed to a central OTA (over the air) key server.
The user can then collect his daily or hourly lock authorisations simply at the push of a key in his MobileKey app. The keys can be configured by the administrator in such a way that they only work for a specified validity period and then expire again. The corresponding doors can then be opened – when the respective authorisations exist – by simply holding the smartphone to the reader integrated in the lock.
NFC attachment
As the card emulation, which is important for access control, was not previously supported sufficiently by smartphone manufacturers, SimonsVoss current employs so-called NFC attachments. These are iCartes for iPhone4 and iPhone4S, and microSDs for Android-based phones.
These attachments include the NFC chip for close-proximity communication and a secure element in which all security-critical information such as passwords and access authorisations are stored and cryptological calculations are performed.
The procedure demonstrated here is already working reliably for a range of test customers and is set to be launched on the market soon.
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