GlobalPlatform, the organization that standardizes the management of applications on secure chip technology, has released a standard language which uses web services to facilitate secure and interoperable communication between trusted service managers (TSMs) and the rest of the mobile near field communication (NFC) ecosystem.
Free to download from the GlobalPlatform website, two new specifications released by the organization address the communication needs of TSMs, which are independent and trusted third parties that facilitate the provisioning and secure management of mobile contactless services. These specifications align with, and meet the requirements of key industry associations including the European Payments Council (EPC), GSMA, and use cases from the Association Française pour le 'Sans Contact' Mobile (AFSCM).
TSMs must be capable of interacting with all mobile network operators and service providers in an interoperable and secure manner. The combined usage of both documents will assist the mobile NFC service community in building a sustainable, scalable and open messaging framework that leverages available web services tools. This will ensure that all parties deploying and managing mobile NFC applications can transport messages efficiently using web services.
The first release is the Web Services Profile for GlobalPlatform Messaging Specification v1.0, which provides guidance on how OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Web Services Standards should be implemented in a GlobalPlatform systems deployment to achieve industry interoperability. The document details how to apply IT infrastructures and industry standard components and tools to ease integration and build web services without the need to design a complete business solution. Publication of this work further aligns GlobalPlatform's technology with current internet capabilities, and aims to encourage confidence in using this medium to communicate when managing the lifecycle of an NFC application deployed on the secure chip of a mobile device.
The web services profile is complemented by GlobalPlatform's Specification for Management of Mobile NFC Services v1.0. This technical specification defines how messages can be exchanged between allll actors in a NFC deployment in an interoperable, secure and reliable web services format. For example, a TSM request on behalf of a bank to a mobile network operator to deploy a payment application (NFC service), or a mobile network operator to notify all parties involved in the delivery of a NFC service that a mobile device has been lost and services to the handset must be terminated.
Eric Le Saint, Chair of the GlobalPlatform Systems Committee and Senior Director of Security, IP and Research at ActivIdentity, comments: "Defining a common language is vital to ensuring interoperable communication exchanges between the actors of the mobile NFC ecosystem. GlobalPlatform Specifications provide the NFC community with the building blocks to create a trusted end-to-end solution which serves multiple actors and supports several business models."
"We applaud the members of GlobalPlatform for building their specifications on SAML, WS-Security, and other OASIS standards," said Laurent Liscia, executive director of OASIS. "The implementation of these widely adopted, foundational standards clearly demonstrates GlobalPlatform's commitment to interoperability for TSMs."
Mr. Dag-Inge Flatraaker, the Chair of the EPC Mobile Working Group, comments: "We welcome the documents as a first step towards interoperability for TSMs which is a crucial factor for the market take up of these services in the NFC ecosystem. The EPC appreciates that the document Specification for Management of Mobile NFC Services v1.0 covers the processes defined in the TSM /MNO space as specified in the joint EPC-GSMA document and is looking forward to further GlobalPlatform work in the TSM /service provider domain."