METHOD FOR OFFERING TIME ON SMART CARD AND METHOD FOR TIME REGISTRATION BY MEANS OF MOBILE COMMUNICATION DEVICE

摘要

A method for offering time on a smart card which is provided for being carried in a host device which comprises at least a first time counter and a gateway for communication with a time server. The method comprises the step of running an algorithm on a processor of the smart card for performing the following steps: reserving a user-inaccessible memory location on the smart card for storing a time; sending a synchronisation time request via the gateway to the time server and, upon receipt of a reply of the time server, extracting a synchronisation time from the reply and storing the synchronisation time as a reference time on the user-inaccessible memory location; starting the first time counter of the host device for counting an elapsed time with respect to the reference time; upon receipt of a present time request, retrieving the elapsed time from the first time counter, calculating a present time on the smart card by adding the elapsed time to the reference time and outputting the present time.