Connection Handover Technical Specification

Defines the structure and sequence of interactions that enable two NFC devices to establish a connection using other wireless communication technologies. The specification enables developers to choose the carrier for the information to be exchanged. If matching wireless capabilities are revealed during the negotiation process between two NFC-enabled devices, the connection can switch to the selected carrier. With this specification, other communication standards bodies can define information required for the connection setup to be carried in NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) messages. The specification also covers static handover, in which the connection handover information is stored on a simple NFC Forum Tag that can be read by NFC-enabled devices. Static mode is used in applications in which the negotiation mechanism or on-demand carrier activation is not required.

The updated version of the NFC Forum Connection Handover Technical Specification (CH 1.5) is the first NFC Forum specification to take advantage of TNEP. By defining the messaging structure for how negotiated handover operates with a reader/writer and an NFC tag device, CH 1.5 creates the possibility for the development of new solutions pairing NFC with technologies like Bluetooth® or Wi-Fi when the data to be transferred is large or streamed for a long time. Examples include Bluetooth audio streaming or transfer of a photo between a digital camera or a smartphone over Wi-Fi. Previously, negotiated handover was limited to a P2P connection. CH 1.5 can now use TNEP to allow an additional negotiated handover for a connection between a reader/writer and NFC tag device providing users more control over how they gather and share their information between devices, thereby increasing the security of paired connections. Negotiated Handover using the Reader/Writer mode will be for example used by the new ISO/IEC 18013-5 standard defining the sharing mechanism for mobile driving licensees.