COMPRION demonstrates active participation in development of OMAPI test specifications

The OMAPI is a standardised interface speaking the language of both the application and the secure element within the handset

As member of the SIMalliance, COMPRION has been deeply involved in the development of OMAPI test specifications. A comprehensive test solution consisting of all necessary hardware, software and test benches to verify the OMAPI implementation will be available from COMPRION.

For mobile payments to become a success, seamless security is required. Currently, mostly proprietary interfaces are used to access the secure element from the application level. Thus nearly every single handset version on the market makes tailored application development unavoidable. Since service providers like mobile network operators are naturally aiming for nonrecurring development of e.g. mobile wallet applications, it is sensible to define common ground by setting and using standards. For this reason, operators have agreed to require the passing of the Open Mobile API (OMAPI) test cases specified by SIMalliance, from terminal manufacturers.

The OMAPI is a standardised interface speaking the language of both the application and the secure element within the handset. Simultaneously the OMAPI acts as kind of gatekeeper denying access to unauthorized requests. This means that the OMAPI is a powerful enabler of the UICC as a secure element. Thus, application developers have to be familiar with and connect to, only one consistent interface, no matter which secure element is used: UICC, an μSD or an eSE. Whatever happens on the layers below the OMAPI will remain transparent to the application developer. It is therefore all the more important to ensure the correct implementation of the OMAPI. Within the last few months, the SIMalliance Open Mobile API Working Group has defined related requirements as well as core specifications. Based on these, COMPRION has developed a detailed test specification enabling the verification of correct OMAPI implementations.

These OMAPI related documents are now referred to in the GSMA NFC Handset Test Book, a document written by the GSMA summarising their latest requirements for NFC enabled handsets. Mobile network operators are about to transfer these handset requirements and the corresponding test cases into the well-established certification bodies. Both GlobalPlatform and Global Certification Forum (GCF) are eager to include the OMAPI tests into their certification programs. Within GCF a work item covering all technologies mentioned in the GSMA NFC Handset Test Book has already been created. Thus WI-176 integrates among others the OMAPI test cases defined by the SIMalliance.

“It is always quite interesting to see technologies springing up, maturing for some time and then all of a sudden attracting more attention. We have been part of the first discussions about OMAPI, and now it is good to see how these test cases are leapfrogging into the certification schemes”, says Andreas Bertling, Director of Standardisation and Technologies at COMPRION.