SWP and NFC

[Fernando Miguélez Palomo]

Hello,

We have been working for a while in NFC projects (card emulation mode)
on Java ME devices. Now we are aiming at working with Android devices
and after reviewing the available ways to access secure elements
needed in NFC card emulation mode, using SEEK APIs seems nowadays a
must.

We have not yet acquired any Android NFC terminal due to the doubts
about hardware support. At present it seems that only Google Nexus S
and Samsung Galaxy S II (in some variants, such as Korean one) have
the required hardware for card emulation. Google Wallet demonstrates
that it is possible on the Nexus S.

Although SEEK API claims that it allows access to internal SE on the
Nexus S, I guess little can be done this way since master keys for
installing cardlets on the internal SE are kept in secret by Google.
Another alternative would be using an UICC supporting SWP. This way
communicating with UICC (SIM) with supported APDUs could let us use
the NFC card emulation mode.

My question is, does Nexus S support SWP and is this way the internal
NFC controller accessible from UICC? Some rumors say that it is not
possible (maybe the hardware interconnection between SIM slot and NFC
chip is missing or the lowest level hardware may just not allow it).
If hardware is not an issue, does SEEK API add all the extra missing
sofware layers to make it possible? Has anybody succeded in
implementing a raw card emulation demo on a Nexus S or any other
android device?

I would really appreciate any help since we are at a stalemate in our
project.

[Daniel]

Fernando,
the Nexus S should support SWP although it is not enabled by default,
see comments from people who already commented on this topic:
http://www.madlmayr.at/blog/?p=139

With SEEK you enable the access to Secure Elements from Android, it's
not in charge of card emulation mode. This functionality needs to be
enabled in the source code. Btw: it was reported that Korean Nexus S
phones support SWP out of the box but we have not verified this yet.
UICC access from Android through the SEEK libraries still face the
problem that the current baseband firmware(s) still block APDU access.
---
Daniel



On Jun 6, 8:24 pm, Fernando Miguélez Palomo

[Fernando Miguélez Palomo]

Thanks Daniel (or Dani) for your quick response.

I think this man is the only one who has succeeded (at least publicly)
in getting card emulation mode working on Nexus S. I regret not having
attended last MWC, where he demonstrated his achievements.

When you mention Korean Nexus S version, do you really mean Nexus S or
Galaxy S II. Because this last phone supporting SWP is the rumor I
have already heard. That's why I wanted to know what is actually true
in all those rumors and what should be the best way to go for the time
being.

I have been developing on Android for almost a year but I am
completely new to low level programming and firmware compilation. Do
you mean that the sources of the baseband processor firmware are not
publicly available for the Nexus S? In case Galaxy S II (Korean or
whatever version) supported SWP out of the box, would it be possible
to compile a firmware (PDA software in Samsung firmware terminology)
version for it with the SEEK sources applied?