Patent ID: 9252845
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: H04B,H04L,H04W

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus comprising: a wireless communication circuit configured and arranged to send and receive over-the-air communications using a first message-exchange protocol having signaling, authentication, and error detection and correction capabilities for interpreting messages sent and received via the over-the-air communications; a near-field communication (NFC) circuit configured and arranged to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of different types of local NFC readers using a second NFC protocol that is different than the first message-exchange protocol; a user interface configured and arranged to present data to a user of the apparatus; a first circuit configured and arranged to communicate with remote transceivers via the wireless communication circuit; a plurality of second circuits, each second circuit configured and arranged to communicate with a specific one of the different types of local NFC readers via the NFC circuit, using secure data stored within the second circuit and inaccessible to the first circuit, different ones of the second circuits being configured and arranged to communicate with different ones of the types of NFC readers; and a routing circuit configured and arranged to, in response to an NFC communication received from a specific one of the NFC readers, identify one of the plurality of second circuits that is configured and arranged to communicate with the specific one of the NFC readers, and route NFC communications between the specific one of the NFC readers and the identified one of the plurality of second circuits, such that the first circuit is further configured and arranged to present data pertaining to the local NFC readers to a user via the user interface, and to communicate with the NFC circuit to provide an authorization for communications with one of the NFC readers in response to a user input received via the user interface, wherein the routing circuit is configured and arranged to identify the one of the plurality of second circuits by accessing stored data in a routing table, and by using the stored data together with data in the NFC communication to identify the one of the plurality of second circuits, wherein each of the second circuits stores at least one application data set that, when executed by the second circuit, causes the second circuit to communicate with the specific one of the local NFC readers, and the routing circuit stores the routing table data, the routing table data including a list of respective applications stored in the respective second circuits, and location information identifying the storage location of the respective applications, wherein the routing circuit stores routing table data including at least one of the data indicating whether or not an application is enabled, at least one of the RF power and internal battery power modes supported by each application, and a priority associated with each application.