Digital Protocol Technical Specification

This specification addresses the digital protocol for NFC-enabled device communication, providing an implementation specification on top of the ISO/IEC 18092 and ISO/IEC 14443 standards. It harmonizes the integrated technologies, specifies implementation options and limits the interpretation of the standards; in essence, showing developers how to use NFC, ISO/IEC 14443 and JIS X6319-4 standards together to ensure global interoperability between different NFC devices, and between NFC devices and existing contactless infrastructure.

The specification defines the common feature set that can be used consistently and without further modification for major NFC applications in areas such as financial services and public transport. The specification covers the digital interface and the half-duplex transmission protocol of the NFC-enabled device in its four roles as Initiator, Target, Reader/Writer and Card Emulator. It includes bit level coding, bit rates, frame formats, protocols, and command sets, which are used by NFC-enabled devices to exchange data and bind to the LLCP protocol.

Version 2.0 of the Digital Protocol technical specification also adds ACM for P2P communication and NFC-V technology. Additionally, updates have been included based on ongoing alignment efforts with other organizations and standards, such as EMVCo, ISO/IEC 14443 and ISO/IEC 18092.

Version 2.1 of the Digital Protocol technical specification adds support for larger RF frames for the contactless ISO-DEP protocol compliant with ISO/IEC 14443 was added to optimize the overall transaction time for ISO-DEP.

Version 2.2 of the Digital Protocol technical specification adds error recover for Type 2 and Type 5 Tags communication. This update improves the user experience by ensuring reliable NFC communication in difficult environments where NFC communications might be disturbed.

Version 2.3 of the Digital Protocol technical specification reflects the removal of NFC Forum Type 1 Tag features from Technical Specification Release 2021 to simplify the implementation of future NFC enabled devices without reducing the user experience.

Version 2.4 of the Digital Protocol technical specification reflects EGT alignment to EMVCo, T5T special frames alignment to ISO/IEC15693, and minor editorial changes.