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International Journal of Infinite Innovations in Technology|ISSN:2278-9057

IJIIT|Volume-II|Issue-IV|2013-2014 April|Paper-15 Reg. No.:20140315|DOI:V2I4P15

Ticketing Protocol Based On

Near Field Communication

Ms.Smita Chandurkar

Datta Meghe College of Engineering

Airoli, Navi Mumbai-400708

Email:[email protected]

Abstract:

NFC-enabled phone transactions can be

used today with existing transport infrastructure.

Improved traveler satisfaction is a major benefit

that may be harder to measure but should be

considered as a retention factor. The main aim of

the proposed ticketing protocol system is to increase

the chances of successful travelling in case of the

payment done but ticket delivery failure .The

rationale behind implementing this system is to

avoid inconvenience to passengers who have been

not delivered tickets but paid for the service. Mobile

ticketing and payment could even be combined into

powerful and innovative appliances with great

usability. Mostly in the field of public transport,

extensive RFID infrastructure for ticketing and

access control is already in use. A wide spectrum of

the ecosystem needed to develop and introduce

public transport programs based on Near Field

Communication (NFC). NFC works with most

contactless smart cards and readers, meaning it

could easily be integrated into the public transit

payment systems in cities like India that which

already use a smart card swipe. A key application of

Near Field Communication (NFC) can be found in

the field of ticketing. In the proposed ticketing

protocol we are implementing a ticketing system for

local trains using the concept of secure (NFC) Near

Field Communication. The rationale behind

implementing this system is to avoid inconvenience

to passengers who have been not delivered tickets

but paid for the service.

Index Terms:

NFC (near field communication) , RFID (radio

frequency identification), RFID tag, Ticketing

System, Token, Public transport system

I. INTRODUCTION

NFC is a short-range wireless communication

technology that is based on approved and mature

standards in the field of RFID and smart cards. RFID,

which has already been introduced in the 1970s,

realizes automatic identification and data transfer via

electromagnetic radio signals typically my means of an

active reader that is connected to a source of energy and

a passive electronic tag that is a transponder receiving

its power from the reader by magnetic induction. One

of the major advantages of NFC is the fact that the

technology is compatible with existing RFID

infrastructure, RFID tags and further contactless smart

cards. NFC is built upon a subset of existing ISO

standards, including the ISO/IEC 14443 standard that is

being used by the RFID technology. NFC hence

operates at the unlicensed 13.56 MHz radio frequency

band with amplitude shift-keying modulation allowing

transfer data rates up to 424 Kbits per second.

Theoretically NFC works up to a distance of 20 cm,

whereas in most scenarios a working distance of about

four centimeters is usual. In contrast to conventional

RFID systems, in the NFC technology there is no more

strict distinction between reader and transponder[4.] A

NFC-capable device integrates both components:

A passive transponder and an active reader. It can not

only read and write data from or to a tag, but also

receive and transmit data directly to another NFC

device. Thus, NFC supports in overall three operating

modes. Reader/Writer mode

Peer-to-Peer mode

Card Emulation mode

NFC technology makes life easier and more

convenient for consumers around the world by making

it simpler to make transactions, exchange digital

content, and connect electronic devices with a touch.

NFC creates a new and universal interface to existing

devices through simple touch interaction. NFC bridges

International Journal of Infinite Innovations in Technology|ISSN:2278-9057 IJIIT|Volume-II|Issue-IV|2013-2014 April|Paper-15

Reg. No.: 20140315|DOI:V2I4P15Page:2

gaps between existing technologies and devices to

enable new applications/services (enabling connections

from real to virtual, connections to physical/real world

)[3].

One of the benefits of NFC technology, it can

be used as a link that enables electronic ticketing or

electronic payment, where tags contain ticket or e-

money information and readers control this information

to be processed as e-money or ticket. The technology

has many advantages and it is fast replacing the other

types of ticketing. Authenticating the location (e.g., the

starting location information) can be done with this

protocol will help to minimize fare fraud.

Our goal at the end of the study is to develop ticketing

system based on Near Field Communication which

works efficiently for tickets of the Mumbai Suburban

Railway i.e. Local trains in Mumbai. Mumbai Suburban

Railway is the just a case study where this particular

protocol implementation is tested. This particular

protocol with few modifications will work any purpose

where one wants to increase availability of service.

Mumbai suburban rail is one of the busiest rapid transit

systems in the world — operating more than 2000 train

services and carrying more than 7 million passengers

daily [4]. Following three are the main ticketing

methods for local train travelers:

Ticket booking windows

Coupon Validating Machines (CVM)

Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVM)

The long queues at railway ticket counters,

especially on weekends and holidays. As traditional

paper tickets, you lose them, you're in trouble. Coupon

Validating Machines (CVMs) were introduced to

decongest the booking counter. Here, passengers have

to purchase a booklet (worth a maximum of Rs. 50)

from the counter consisting of various denominations

(Rs. 1, Rs. 2, Rs. 3, etc.) of coupons which have to be

validated by inserting into the machine. Again for

purchase of coupon booklet will be queue process and

passenger will have to check for fair amount from

charts will take time.

ATVM machines, currently there is Smart

Card operating Machine. ATVM (Automatic Ticket

Vending Machine), currently there is Smart Card

operating Machine. This card will cost and initial

amount of Rs.100, from which the first time usable

amount will be Rs.52 to get tickets from ATVM

machine and some Rs.30 to balance amount is kept by

Railway as one time security deposit (Refundable).

Figure: Current Ticket Purchasing Methods for Local Trains



Thus from the study, we came to know that the

current ticketing methods are good but need some

improvements. We need more reliable, secure, easy to

use, and suitable for the mass population with more

successful travelling guarantee protocol.

Malfunctioning CVM is again major issue. To add

more trouble to this facility, commuters of Central

Railway say that you get coupons which have

denominations such as Rs. 3 and Rs. 5, whereas the

tariff for most stations are on the lines of Rs. 4, Rs. 6,

Rs. 12, etc. In short, you end up spending more just

because they don‘t give right currencies. According to a

circular dated April 1, 2012, passengers will now have

to wait in line for purchasing the booklets.

This Proposed Ticketing Protocol is used to

collect passengers‘ time and location based data and

communicating that to a central back-end system

perfectly. Token (Partial ticket) will be given to

customer with the fare amount. With the token provided

and the transaction detail for the ticket the customer

will be able to travel.

III.LITERATURE REVIEW

We have done extensive literature review for

studying the background, classification and various

techniques available for mobile payment and NFC

ticketing systems.

NFC Payment Literature Review

Mobile payment is a transfer of funds in return

for goods or services in which a mobile device is

functionally involved in executing and confirming

payment. The work on NFC was started by Phillips and

Sony in 2002 and they complemented it by developing

the first NFC forum along with Nokia. Since then, the

NFC forum has more than 150 members and research is

being conducted by many companies and academic

organizations in this field. NFC can also be called the

2nd generation or ‗2G‘ RFID. A lot of NFC-enabled

phones now exist in the market and many applications

have been or are being developed [5].

Integrated

NFC

Micro

SD

Stickers

Fobs

Bar

Codes

Payments in

Cloud SMS

Reliability 4 2 3 1 3 1

Transaction

Speed 4 4 4 3 2 1

Security 4 4 3 1 2 2

Ease-of-Use 4 3 3 3 2 2

Wallet

Functionality 4 4 0 0 4 0

Acceptance 1 1 1 1 0 0

Device

Availability 0 3 3 4 4 4

Value Add

Applications 4 3 0 2 4 0

Legend

WORST 0 1 2 3 4 BEST

Figure: Comparison of Alternative Mobile Payment Approaches [6]



Currently, the following technologies are available (or

have been announced) that can enable mobile payment:

Mobile handset with integrated NFC.

Non-integrated NFC and contactless devices,

such as stickers, micro SD cards, key fobs, and

similar form factors.

Bar codes.

Mobile phone initiated payments in the cloud.

SMS text messaging.

Each technology has advantages and

disadvantages, and they are not mutually exclusive. A

single device can accommodate multiple types of

mobile payments. At least in the short term, it is likely

that no single technology will prevail.

What makes the communication between the devices so

easy is that the NFC protocol provides some features

not found in other general-purpose protocols.

First of all, it is a very short-range protocol. It supports

communication at distances measured in centimeters.

The devices have to be almost touched to establish the

link between them. This has two important advantages:

1) The devices can rely on the protocol to be inherently

secured since the devices must be placed very close to

each other. It is easy to control whether the two devices

communicate by simply placing them next to each other

or keeping them apart.

2) The procedure of establishing the protocol is

inherently familiar and easy to people as you want

something to communicate – touch it. This allows for

the establishment of the network connection between

the devices be completely automated and happen in a

transparent manner and extremely fast i.e. <0.1s.

The above figure shows the complete ticket booking,

payment and ticket validation process. These steps are

explained in details below:

The above Fig 4.1 presents a summary of how

the alternative mobile payment approaches meet the

criteria such as Reliability, Transaction Speed, Security,

Ease of Use, Device Availability and Additional Value-

Add. Over time, these ratings will undoubtedly change,

based on maturity of the solutions, changes in the

acceptance environment, and other developments. NFC

contactless transactions are reliable. Mobile payment

technology should reduce the frequency that cards are

passed to the

clerk to perform a transaction, simplifying the

transaction. NFC-enabled vending machines will reduce

cash collection costs.

Chen, W. Hancke, G.P.; Mayes, K.E.; Lien,

Y.; Chiu, J.-H. describes a mobile payment system for

merchant micropayments, which can be built on

existing GSM and NFC architecture components. Many

mobile payment methods have been proposed, although

such methods are intended for peer-to-peer transactions

rather than a conventional merchant payment

environment [7].

Jan Ondrus, Yves Pigneur evaluate in a

systematic manner the potential of NFC as an upcoming

technology for mobile payments. In order to ensure the

rigor of their research, they used a formal and

structured approach based on multi-actor multi-criteria

methods [8]. Pasquet, Marc Reynaud, J.; Rosenberger,

C. describes on the security analysis which can occur in

a NFC mobile phone payment [9].

NFC Mobile Ticketing Literature Review

Beside mobile payment another large segment

capable for NFC applications is mobile ticketing. In

certain cases, both mobile ticketing and payment could

even be combined into powerful and innovative

appliances with great usability. Mostly in the field of

public transport, extensive RFID infrastructure for

ticketing and access control is already in use. The

advantage of such systems essentially is to get rid of

buying paper-based tickets at retail shops or ticket

vendor machines. Instead, a RFID compatible

smartcard is used to check the ticket validity and to

debit the appropriate ticket price for each journey.

In 2005 the German transport association

RMV (Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund) started a pilot

project, where customers could use their NFC enabled

mobile phone to purchase tickets. Based on a best-

price-policy passengers only had to check in/out at a

terminal in the bus when they entered or left, in order to

receive the cheapest ticket for the route [10].

Today there are already some well-established

transport applications for chip cards in big cities using

EFM, such as the Octupus Card in Hongkong, Oyster

Card in London, ezlink Card in Singapore and the

Super Urban Intelligent Card (Suica) in Tokio [11]. The

ticketing system is the translation of fares into concrete

means of payment (for the passenger) and fare

collection (for the operator). Several types of tickets are

used in public transport systems such as Bus, Train,

Airoplane etc.

Md. Foisal Mahedi Hasan, Golam Tangim,

Md. Kafiul Islam, Md. Rezwanul Haque

Khandokar,Arif Ul Alam have proposed RFID-based

ticketing for public transport system for megacity

Dhaka. The total system mainly acts to bring out the

consistency among various bus agencies that will

conclude in uniform access of passengers in daily rides

through an automated server being updated every single

time the passengers travel by carrying the RFID based

tickets [12].

Finzgar, L.Trebar, M describes the

implementation of a system, which enables the use of

phones for acquiring electronic public transport ticket.

QR codes and RFID tags are used for registering

passenger at the beginning and at the end of their



journeys. Use of NFC and QR code identification in an

electronic ticket system for public transport [13].

O¨BB (Austrian Federal Railways): ŐBB

offers the service named as Handy Tickets based on

NFC. In this system Ticket can be obtained on NFC

Enabled mobile phone via SMS. The customer has to be

register first and then he can buy the tickets by sending

an SMS. Customer receives a special code. Before

starting the journey customer needs to verify this code

at terminal via NFC [14] [15].

Jan-Erik Ekberg, Sandeep Tamrakar presented

a trial implementation of ticketing architecture for

mobile phones that implements a new take on how to

bind ticketed identity to the place and time when

journey begins and ends. Earlier this has been practical

only in gated transport system, but not in system with

non-gate parts [16].

NFC Ticketing Applications Domain Beside mobile payment another large segment

capable for NFC applications is mobile ticketing. In

certain cases, both mobile ticketing and payment could

even be combined into powerful and innovative

appliances with great usability.

1) Oyster Card:

One of the most popular systems for RFID

based mobile ticketing is operating in London. The so-

called Oyster Card works as contactless smartcard for

prepaid mobile ticketing and can be used on all public

transport services within the London area. All buses as

well as entrance and departure gates of subway and

train stations are equipped with RFID readers which the

customers have touch with their Oyster cards when

starting and ending their journey. Altogether more than

20.000 reading devices are installed in the field. In

either case, the readers are able to read and write the

cards in less than 300ms allowing a quick and

straightforward access control and ticketing procedure.

This form of system thus not only prevents travelers

from using the transport systems without a valid ticket,

but also can automatically debit the appropriate fare

from the card depending on the traveling type and

duration. As a matter of course the card needs to be

topped up in advance. This is usually done via cash or

credit card at kiosks or at certain vending machines

placed at the stations.Flat rate tickets, e.g. based on

monthly subscriptions, can of course also be linked to

the Oyster Card.

Figure : Oyster Card : Transport for London

As being technically compatible, this immense

RFID based ticketing system can be extended for NFC

support without much effort. This means that the

smartcard could be replaced by a NFC enabled mobile

phone. Tickets could be either bought online and

disposed directly to the phone in advance or - combined

with NFC

payment - debited from a bank account automatically.

After each journey the mobile handset could

additionally display useful related information, e.g. the

charged fare or the travel time, and hence provide

further usability. In cooperation with Telefonica O2,

Nokia, Barclaycard, Visa Europe and others, a six

months trial for NFC based travel capabilities

embedded in mobile phones has finished in 2008 with

great success

and positive user feedback. However, until now the

London transportation system is still not working with

NFC phones yet. Nevertheless, there are plans to deploy

new contactless reading devices like the Visa PayWave

or the MasterCard PayPass systems to London‘s

transportation network until 2013 thus allowing

postpaid ticketing combined with NFC payment [17].

2) DB Touch and Travel:

In Germany, a similar system is gradually

attracting attention. The project ‖Touch and Travel‖ run

by Deutsche Bahn (DB) is also based on a best-price

principle using check-in and check-out points at train

stations which the users have to touch in order to trace

their journey. For this purpose, so-called‖Touchpoints‖

have been installed at the stations.

These are equipped with NFC tags storing

location information. In order to use this system,

customers are required to register their NFC phone and

to install an application that is available for Android

and iOS. At the beginning and end of their journey they

tap the Touchpoint with their NFC phone. The place of

location and hence the itinerary is determined and sent

to Deutsche Bahn servers via the Internet. After

checking out the cheapest price for the journey can be

identified and at the end of the months the customer

receives an invoice summing up all invoked activities.

When being checked by ticket inspectors during the



journey, a barcode on the mobile phone application

verifies the ticket validity.

Figure: Touch point: Transport for the Deutsche

Bahn Touch & Travel service.

Due to the lack of NFC mobiles available at present in

Germany, the Touchpoints also offer the opportunity to

check in and out via scanning a QR code that is visible

on each Touchpoint. The Deutsche Bahn Touch and

Travel system thus currently also works withnon-NFC

capable mobile phones [18].

III. MOTIVATION AND PROBLEM DEFINITION

Motivation:

After detail literature survey suggests that

there are multiple usages and its secure features of Near

Field Communication (NFC) technology, which opens

up exciting and new usage scenarios for mobile devices

based platform. After reviewing the existing ticketing

methods for many countries public transport systems

and specifically Mumbai Suburban Railway i.e. local

train travelers, we identified many drawbacks in

ticketing system. Fare fraud can be a chronic problem

in transit systems, especially large systems like India

with huge population. These all lead to motivation

about study based on NFC embedded in phone. In

addition, the study also focused on the customers‘

perspectives with Near Field Communication ticketing

in terms of its reliability, security and convenience. The

aim of the protocol is to decrease the unavailability of

service tin case of ticket delivery failure. With this

protocol the customer will be able to travel with token

as partial ticket. The rationale behind implementing this

Problem Definition:

Many ticketing methods are available but less

work is done on the rare situation where the ticket

delivery is failed due to some reason. We are presenting

the system which will handle this situation and the

Proposed Ticketing Protocol is used to collect

passengers‘ time and location based data and

communicating that to a central back-end system

perfectly which will reduce the fare fraud. Tokenization

is used in the system. Token (Partial ticket) is passed to

customer. With the token provided and the transaction

detail for the ticket the customer will be able to travel.

Further validation of the ticket can done with token and

transaction detail by Railway authorities. For proper

validation of

IV.IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULT

This paper proposes a ticketing method based on the

NFC technology and can be used for the Mumbai

Suburban Railway i.e. local trains in Mumbai. You can

now book and pay for your ticket with this system.

You‘ll then receive your tickets directly on your smart

phone or tablet. This is a complete Ticketing protocol

based on Near Field Communication. Contains

Following modules and interaction between them:

Figure:

Block diagram of NFC based ticketing protocol

MOBILE

Ticket Request

and

Ticket Accept

RAILWAY

Validations for

Customer & NFC

BANK

Validation for

Account & Payment

EXAMINAR

Ticket

Validation



Figure: Message flow for ticket purchase process

Complete NFC ticketing Process

The above figure shows the complete ticket booking,

payment and ticket validation process. These steps are

explained in details below:

1. User fills the form with details such as Customer ID,

Password, Destination and Number of tickets and summit.

Fig. 7.3: Form Submission to Railway Server

2. User taps phone to NFC reader before starting journey.

Bank

Server

Railway

Server

Form----------

-----------------

--------

Submit

NFC Reader 2. Tap Here

3. Token And Fare

4. Confirmation

8. Ticket Received

5. A/c Number & Fare

6. Payment

Success

7. SMS for Payment

Success

1. Form Submit



Fig 7.4: Tap on NFC Reader

3. Railway server will authenticate Customer with NFC tag,

Customer ID, Password and Station ID.

Fig. 7.4: Validation by Railway server

4. Token and fare is calculated return to customer for

confirmation.

Fig 7.5.: Token and Fare

5. After confirmation account number and fare send to bank

server.

6. Bank server informs railway server and the user about

success transaction by sending SMS.

Figure: Transaction done and SMS sending

7. Railway server sends ticket to customer.

Figure: Ticket Received

Ticket Not Received Scenario

After complete ticketing process as payment for the

ticket is done by user to bank server but ticket not received

by user due to any technical or functional reasons. But user

can travel with token and the payment SMS.



Figure: Payment SMS

Figure: Token ID

Ticket Validation for ticket delivery failure scenario

If the user will not receive any ticket after

successful payment for ticket. User will travel with token

and SMS by bank. While journey the ticket examiner will

validate the token with ticket validation application.

Figure: Ticket Validation with Token ID

CONCLUSION

An important contribution of proposed ticketing

protocol is security and the increase in chances of travelling

in case of ticket delivery failure and payment done. Thus

the combination of Token given by railway ticketing system

and the SMS from bank for ticket payment gives customer

the travelling service in case of ticket delivery failure.

Obtaining electronic a ticket is much more convenient.

Using their NFC-enabled phones, consumers can manage

their cards and tickets anywhere at any time .The fact that

NFC is also interoperable with existing smartcard

systems should also ensure that this technology would be

more easily integrated into existing public transport system

infrastructures. NFC provides all the features which make it

a valid technology for mass public transport ticketing:

contactless transactions at high speed, stability, security and

simplicity. The proposed solutions based on combinations of

standards and technologies using current contactless

infrastructures.

FUTURE SCOPE

The application could be generalized for Mumbai

Suburban Railways have experienced a huge all transports

i.e. one application for all transport systems like tickets of

bus, railways, road ways (toll plazas) and airlines. NFC is

pegged to be the technology of the future to make payments

through NFC enabled devices. Besides that it can also be



used to pay for ticketing in public places such as museums,

concerts, theatres, metros etc. The most well-known use of

NFC is for contactless payments. We can even use NFC to

connect to secure networks without having to enter complex

authorization codes. With the technology such as e-

commerce becoming popular in India, more and more people

are seeing the need to have easier means of making

transactions. While e-commerce reduces the need of making

physical visits when looking to buy products, in-store

payments to NFC could be the end results of the physical

visit as well.NFC can make us lives easier as it offers many

uses in our everyday life.

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