Method and apparatus for anti-eavesdropping in vunerable NFC applications

摘要

A system and method may dynamically (a) adjust signal characteristics of individual portions of a Near Field Communication (“NFC”) transmission, and/or (b) change NFC wireless communication channels. A transmitting device may transmit to a receiving device via multiple NFC channels. For instance, a transmitting device may have multiple spatially-separated antennas and/or transmitters, and a transmission required to complete a financial transaction (or other wireless communication) with a receiving device may have several portions. Each transmission portion may be sequentially and/or individually transmitted from the transmitting device to the receiving device using a different antenna and/or transmitter, i.e., a different communication channel. Each channel may use (1) a different antenna and/or transmitter located on the transmitting device, and/or (2) a different level or setting of a signal characteristic, such as transmit at a different power level, phase, frequency, or other characteristic than other channels. As a result, eavesdropping may be inhibited.

主权项

1. A mobile device capable of facilitating a financial transaction or other data exchange using close range communication, the mobile device comprising:
multiple antennas mounted on the mobile device, wherein a transmission of a message that includes encoded data for the financial transaction or other data exchange from the mobile device to a receiving device comprises:
partitioning the message into a plurality of portions; andtransmitting the plurality of portions of the message, each portion is transmitted using one of a plurality of signals from the mobile device to the receiving device via the multiple antennas, wherein each portion is transmitted (1) from a different antenna from among the multiple antennas, and (2) with a different signal characteristic, respectively, to facilitate completing the financial transaction or other data exchange in a secure manner.