Patent ID: 8279843

Claim:
A switch for use in a near field communication (NFC) system that enables web services to be provided to the NFC system, the switch comprising: a first data port coupled to a network of the NFC system to receive IP packets; a processor coupled to the first data port to identify select ones of the IP packets transmitted from an NFC reader coupled to the network, the select IP packets containing NFC data indicating a reader identity (ID) of the NFC reader and a tag ID of an NFC tag in communication with the NFC reader, the tag ID uniquely identifying a user of the NFC system, the processor being operable to extract the NFC data from the select IP packets, generate a request message and insert the extracted NFC data into the request message; and a second data port coupled to the processor to receive the request message and operable to transmit the request message to a web application server that provides the web services based on the NFC data.