8 February 2022

RFID Vs NFC

RFID and NFC are used daily by our customers for cashless payment, access control, social networking, and experiential marketing. It is quick, friendly, engaging, and dependable, albeit a little perplexing which is why we are here to help. So here this article gives the difference between RFID and NFC to better understand this topic.

What is NFC?

NFC stands for near-field communication, it is wireless communication technology that is primarily used in mobile or handheld devices. It allows radio communication to be established by touching two phones or keeping them within a few centimetres of each other. It is simple to select for the last few centimetres. NFC communication is primarily based on induction coupling, which uses magnetic induction between two loop antennas operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz and data rates ranging from 106 to 424kbit/s.

What is RFID?

RFID stands for radio frequency identification, It is a method that makes use of the internet. Data is digitally encoded in RFID tags that can be read by a reader, similar to barcodes, and data read from tags is stored in a database by the reader. It is made up of two parts: an integrated circuit and an antenna, and the tags are protected by a layer of material that acts as a shield against various environmental effects. The most commonly used RFID tags are passive and active RFID tags.

Difference between RFID and NFC | RFID vs NFC:

Developed:

NFC called near-field communications is introduced in 2002, while RFID called frequency identification technology is introduced in 1980.

Definition:

NFC is a type of short-range high-frequency wireless technology and is mainly used for mobile or handheld devices. While radio frequency identification is an automatic identification method that uses the internet, in which data is digitally encoded in RFID.

Tags:

NFC is near field communication tags that are passive in nature. While RFID identification tags can be both active or passive in nature and also semi-passive in nature.

Communication:

NFC provides bidirectional communication, while RFID unidirectional communication.

Structure:

NFC in which only for smartphones with in-built communication, while the RFID we have to add some extra tags and a reader.

Security:

NFC provides medium security features,  while RFID provides features like miss reading duplication or basic security. 

Sampling:

Sampling is not present in radio frequency in NFC, while RFID sampling is not present.

Frequency range:

In NFC we operate only high frequency 13.56 MHz and act ac both reader and tag devices must be in close proximity due to short read range. While RFID identification contains three types of range. low frequency: 125-134 Khz, high frequency - 13.56 Mhz, Ultra high frequency - 856 MHz to 960 Mhz.

Popular Uses:

NFC tags are generally used for paying bills using NFC, tracking car mileage, sharing data, and sharing and transferring information between two devices by tapping each other, while the RFID tags are generally used for asset tracking, tools tracking, race timing, access control, and inventory tracking.

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