Two new specifications released by GlobalPlatform address the communication needs of TSMs, that are independent and trusted third parties that facilitate the provisioning and secure management of mobile contactless services. These specifications align with, and meet the requirements of key industry associations including the European Payments Council (EPC), GSMA, and use cases from the Association Française pour le ‘Sans Contact’ Mobile (AFSCM).
TSMs must be capable of interacting with all mobile network operators and service providers in an interoperable and secure manner. The combined usage of both documents will assist the mobile NFC service community in building a sustainable, scalable and open messaging framework that leverages available web services tools. This will ensure that all parties deploying and managing mobile NFC applications can transport messages efficiently using web services.
The first release is the Web Services Profile for GlobalPlatform Messaging Specification v1.0, which provides guidance on how OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards), and W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Web Services Standards should be implemented in a GlobalPlatform systems deployment to achieve industry interoperability.
The document details how to apply IT infrastructures and industry standard components and tools to ease integration and build web services without the need to design a complete business solution. Publication of this work further aligns GlobalPlatform’s technology with current internet capabilities, and aims to encourage confidence in using this medium to communicate when managing the lifecycle of an NFC application deployed on the secure chip of a mobile device.