Registers – Coded record sensors – Particular sensor structure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-09-27
2004-08-17
Paik, Steven S. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Coded record sensors
Particular sensor structure
C235S375000, C235S376000, C235S380000, C235S441000, C235S492000, C340S005610, C340S005740
Reexamination Certificate
active
06776339
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention pertains to wireless communication, and more particularly to the use of smart cards and security components and security chips in wireless communication devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A smart card is a memory and/or microprocessor chip embedded in a plastic card for easy carrying and usage, most commonly as a smart card based payment card (such as a Eurocard-Mastercard-Visa (EMV) card or a so-called e-purse) or as a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in wireless terminals, such as in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). A microprocessor chip of a smart card also often contains advanced security features that protect the data in the memory. Smart cards with only memory are called memory cards; smart cards with a microprocessor chip and memory are called microprocessor cards. A memory card stores data but cannot manipulate the data, and can be considered similar to a floppy disk, except that such a card also includes security features such as authenticated access to memory and copy protection of memory contents against unauthorized access. A microprocessor card can add, delete, and otherwise manipulate information in a memory on the card, and is like a miniature computer, having an input and output port, an operating system, and persistent memory (such as a hard disk or other non-volatile memory device), but with built-in security features. Microprocessor card functionality is defined by and can be changed with software applications that are installed to card.
Smart cards have two different types of interfaces: contact interfaces and contactless interfaces, otherwise known as radiofrequency (RF) interfaces. A contact smart card must be inserted into a contact card reader to interface with other systems. For example, a smart card can hold in memory either an indication of funds from which a ticket can be purchased from a ticketing system, or can hold in memory an indication of a number of tickets already paid for and not yet used, in which case the smart card interfaces with the ticketing system to use a ticket. In either case, the ticketing system would read the memory of the smart card to determine the current balance (of either funds or tickets not already used), subtract either the price of a ticket or reduce the number of tickets by one, and write the new balance to the memory.
When using a contact smart card, the contact card reader (of for example a ticketing system) makes contact with electrical connectors on the card (leading to the chip) and via the connectors, transfers data to and from the chip (memory on the chip). Contactless smart cards are passed near a contactless card reader, having an antenna and RF module on the card, in order to carry out a transaction (such as using a ticket as above). Contactless cards are preferable in cases where transactions must be processed quickly, as in mass transit or toll collection, or where the reader needs high availability as RF reading does not wear out electrical contacts or mechanical elements of a reader.
Some cards include only one or another of the two kinds of interfaces, and some, called dual interface cards, include both kinds.
In wireless communications via a cellular communications network, such as provided by the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), smart cards called SIM (subscriber identity module) cards, which are microprocessor smart cards, provide secure user authentication, secure roaming, and a platform for value-added services. The SIM card (i.e. the microprocessor on the SIM card) can be programmed to carry multiple applications, such as a credit card applications (to allow debits and credits to a credit card account, or a ticketing application, to allow buying tickets). In such a case, the SIM card should act as a contactless (memory or microprocessor) smart card, communicating with for example a ticketing system via RF communications according to ISO (international standards organization) 14443 (as opposed to RF for cellular communications, as for example for communicating with a radio access network of GSM). The activation of new applications can be downloaded to the card over the air, in real time, via the cellular communication network. Some wireless communication devices today also include contact and/or contactless (memory or microprocessor) smart cards that are distinct from the SIM card.
FIGS. 1 and 2
show a prior art mobile terminal
10
including a dual-interface smart card
14
(which may be a SIM, or may be another, distinct smart card) having a contact interface
14
a
and a contactless interface
14
b
, and shows the smart card communicating with a ticketing system
11
via its contactless interface (the ticketing system including a contactless card reader
15
and a back end, i.e. the rest of the ticketing system after the card reader), and also communicating with a terminal interface module
12
of the mobile terminal
10
via the contact interface (the terminal interface including a contact card reader
12
a
).
FIG. 2
shows the contact interface
14
b
of the smart card
14
of
FIG. 1
in more detail, and indicates the antenna used to provide the contactless interface
14
b
. In all the contactless smart cards according to the prior art, an antenna per ISO standard 14443, is embedded in the card, and when such a card is enclosed in a cellular communication device, the antenna must be moved to the outside of the device. ISO standard series 7816-X governs all aspects of the smart card and its contact interface, including (in 7816-4) common format of commands and basic commands and responses to include the application protocol data unit (the command exchange format independent of the transport protocol).
In
FIG. 1
, the smart card
14
might host a ticketing application (in which case the card is a microprocessor smart card) or might hold only ticket data (so that the card could then be a simple memory card). In case the smart card
14
hosts a ticketing application, in order to purchase a ticket (for example to get on a bus or a subway), the ticketing application interacts with the ticketing system
11
and is authenticated, and then the ticketing application deducts the cost of the ticket from the balance of a ticket account stored in the smart card application. In case of a memory card, the memory holding a ticket account is read by the ticketing system
11
and the ticketing system then re-writes the balance in the ticket account reduced by the cost of the ticket. In either case, since the smart card reader of the ticketing application is a contactless reader, the mobile terminal
10
in which the smart card
14
resides, is waved (swiped) near to the card reader of the ticketing system so as to prompt the card reader and thereby initiate the ticket-purchase (or use) transaction as described above. The smart card
14
might be the SIM card of the mobile terminal
10
, or it might be another smart card. The smart card
14
is a dual-interface card, having both a contact interface
14
a
and a contactless interface
14
b
, to allow for downloading, via the cellular network and then via the contact interface, new tokens (for purchasing tickets) or other ticket-purchasing funds. In addition, the contact interface can be used to allow a user of the mobile terminal to browse the memory of the smart card, for example to determine the number of tokens left in the ticket account.
The smart card
14
is controlled, via either interface
14
a
14
b
, with so-called APDU (Application Protocol Data Units) commands, defined in ISO standard 7816-4 or defined for the application in separate specifications. (ISO standard 7816-4 defines the common format and some common commands, but there is a separate specification for smart card credit cards that defines a set of commands for such smart cards, and the same is true for GSM SIM smart cards.) RF access to smart cards is defined in multiple ISO standards, but especially ISO standard 14443, mentioned above. Also, the terminology APDU is used here both in the smart card specif
Nokia Corporation
Paik Steven S.
Ware Fressola Van Der Sluys & Adolphson LLP
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