Comparison With Bluetooth
| Aspect | NFC | Bluetooth | Bluetooth Low Energy |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFID compatible | ISO 18000-3 | active | active |
| Standardisation body | ISO/IEC | Bluetooth SIG | Bluetooth SIG |
| Network Standard | ISO 13157 etc. | IEEE 802.15.1 | IEEE 802.15.1 |
| Network Type | Point-to-point | WPAN | WPAN |
| Cryptography | not with RFID | available | available |
| Range | < 0.2 m | ~100 m (class 1) | ~50 m |
| Frequency | 13.56 MHz | 2.4–2.5 GHz | 2.4–2.5 GHz |
| Bit rate | 424 kbit/s | 2.1 Mbit/s | ~1.0 Mbit/s |
| Set-up time | < 0.1 s | < 6 s | < 0.006 s |
| Power consumption | < 15mA (read) | varies with class | < 15 mA (transmit or receive) |
NFC and Bluetooth are both short-range communication technologies that are integrated into mobile phones. As described in technical detail below, NFC operates at slower speeds than Bluetooth, but consumes far less power and doesn't require pairing.
NFC sets up faster than standard Bluetooth, but is not faster than Bluetooth low energy. With NFC, instead of performing manual configurations to identify devices, the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established quickly: in less than a tenth of a second. The maximum data transfer rate of NFC (424 kbit/s) is slower than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s). With a maximum working distance of less than 20 cm, NFC has a shorter range, which reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception. That makes NFC particularly suitable for crowded areas where correlating a signal with its transmitting physical device (and by extension, its user) becomes difficult.
In contrast to Bluetooth, NFC is compatible with existing passive RFID (13.56 MHz ISO/IEC 18000-3) infrastructures. NFC requires comparatively low power, similar to the Bluetooth V4.0 low energy protocol. When NFC works with an unpowered device (e.g., on a phone that may be turned off, a contactless smart credit card, a smart poster), however, the NFC power consumption is greater than that of Bluetooth V4.0 Low Energy, since illuminating the passive tag needs extra power.
Read more about this topic: Near Field Communication
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