mCoupons: An Application for Near Field Communication (NFC)

Near field communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless communication standard. It is very comfortable for the user as communication starts without any further configuration steps when bringing two devices very close together. This property makes the standard well suitable for the use with mobile coupons (we call it mCoupons). Nowadays, coupons are a very common way for companies to promote their products or services. These coupons are available as paper-based coupons or electronic coupons (which for example are used on the web). We propose a new form of coupons, so called mCoupons, which can be downloaded from a poster or a newspaper equipped with a passive NFC device to a mobile device. With this mobile device the user can then cash in the mCoupon at the cashier. In most of the cases, the value of each coupon is relatively low but misuse in larger scale can result in a major damage for a company. Therefore, mCoupons shall be secured against attackers. In this paper, we propose protocols for a secure mCoupon system using NFC technology. This protocol can be a basis for future micro-payment or ticketing services.