ABSTRACT
Smart cards are being extensively used today across the globe in variety of application domains. Different types of smart cards have different characteristics and performance benefits under varying operational scenarios. Numerous technologies exist that empower the use of these smart portable systems across wide range of applications depending on the underlying requirements related to storage, processing, security features, communication interface, and so forth. This chapter discusses different types of smart cards that are in use today and classifies them based on their capabilities, security features they possess, nature of communication with the smart card reader, nature of embedded components, type of usage, and operating system residing on the card. Moreover, their various aspects are discussed in detail, including hardware and software configuration and the key applications of each type. Later, detailed functioning of smart card–based systems and applications is described, along with a discussion on how different underlying participating entities interact with each other.
