Host Card Emulation(HCE)

Host card emulation(HCE) enables NFC devices to perform contactless transactions in card emulation mode when the payment, other credentials and related card applications are stored somewhere other than the Secure element e.g., in the cloud, in a trusted execution environment on the mobile device, or in a virtual, software-based infrastructure on the mobile device. Currently, NFC-based applications that use the card emulation mode (i.e., where the reading terminal effectively sees the mobile phone mimicking a traditional contactless smart card and no change to the reading infrastructure is required) require the card application (e.g., payments, ticketing, access control) and its credentials (e.g., account information, ticket, access identifier and tokens) to be stored inside a hardware-based secure element on the mobile device itself.