TRANSPORTATION
Conformance of both tickets/tokens and readers with international standards: the ISO 10373-6 test tool and the CEN TS 16794 test tool.
Contactless ticketing overview
Contactless ticketing is becoming more and more popular in mass transit systems around the globe. Places like Tokyo and Hong-Kong have had their system in place for almost 15 years. Smaller cities are now adopting contactless ticketing as it considerably helps to reduce waiting time, enhance security (less cash on board), and is simply more convenient.
Transportation systems in place today rely on contactless technology developed by NXP (MIFARE) and Sony (FeliCa).
NI offers test solutions for characterizing, debugging, and checking the compliance of contactless tickets (or any type of form factor such as tokens) and readers (present at subway gates for example) according to the relevant standards.

Test solutions for transportation related devices
NI through its acquisition of Micropross is a key member of various standardization committees, including the ISO SC17 WG8 and WG4 groups. In addition, we are connected with the French AFIMB (Association Française pour l’Information Multimodale et la Billetique). It has defined test specifications for transportation cards, NFC phones used in a transportation context, and readers (or POS). It is now operating as a European standard: CEN/TS 16794.
We offer a full range of test solutions. They ensure the conformance of both tickets/tokens and readers with international standards: the ISO 10373-6 test tool and the CEN TS 16794 test tool.
NI solutions for ISO
The ISO SC17 WG8 defines ISO 14443, and its associated test specification: the ISO 10373-6. We have test solutions based on the Contactless Test Station (CTS) and the MP500 TCL3. They respect the requirements of the latest version of these test specifications (2015). These solutions include:
- ISO 10373-6 PICC Analog: This test suite performs fully automated test cases to verify the conformance of a contactless smartcard with the requirements of ISO 14443 and ISO 10373-6. Tests performed here include load modulation amplitude (LMA), PICC reception, and loading effect measurements.
- ISO 10373-6 PICC Digital: This test suite performs all test scenarios defined in ISO 10373-6, including testing a contactless smartcard’s behavior in case of unexpected conditions (bad CRC, chaining, timing issues, …).
- ISO 10373-6 PCD Analog: This test suite will inspect a contactless reader from a RF perspective, including analysis of the operating volume, the signal characteristics (t1, t2, t3, t4, tovs, …) and the input sensitivity of the reader.
- ISO 10373-6 PCD Digital: This test suite performs all test scenarios defined in ISO 10373-6 to ensure that a contactless reader (POS) behaves in conformance with the standard (timing management, CRC errors, block chaining, …).
Our ISO 10373-6 test suites support all newly defined VHBR (Very High Baud Rate) and EMD (Electromagnetic Disturbance) test cases.
NI solutions for CEN/TS 16794
CEN/TS 16794 test cases are designed for the contactless transportation market. Its adoption is mostly in Europe. We propose all test cases defined within the specification. These test cases are the same as those performed at designated certification laboratories.
These test suites run on top of the Contactless Test Station and MP500 TCL3. They are segmented in this way :
These test suites listed above directly address the specific requirements of the transportation market. They take into account additional parameters such as reading distance, and compatibility with NFC Forum requirements.