Commuters and other passengers in the Greater Los Angeles Area are about to experience an upgrade, as the LA Metro becomes the world's first transport operator to implement NXP's MIFARE Plus contactless technology for automatic fare collection.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro), which already uses a system based on NXP's MIFARE Classic, is modifying their Transit Access Pass, or TAP card, to include MIFARE Plus microcontroller smart card ICs. As a result, everyone who rides the system will now enjoy tap-and-go convenience along with best-in-class security features.
The LA Metro system serves one of the most populated areas in the world and attracts around 480 million boardings a year. To ensure a smooth transition to the new technology, LA Metro will take advantage of several MIFARE Plus features, including support for pre-issuance of new cards, co-existence with current and new cards, and software-based infrastructure upgrades. After upgrading the system infrastructure, it will be possible to switch MIFARE Plus-powered cards in the field to a higher security level without revoking or re-issuing cards.
MIFARE Plus
MIFARE Plus is the latest addition to NXP's market-leading MIFARE family of contactless technologies, which are used in transport networks and access management systems worldwide. MIFARE Plus meets the highest industry standards in performance and security, including 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptology. It offers a number of additional security and privacy features which, when used optimally in the infrastructure, provide a system that prevents individuals from being identified and tracked by others.
MIFARE Plus is targeted to receive Common Criteria EAL 4+ certification and complements NXP's leading range of contactless technologies, such as MIFARE DESFire and SmartMX, which area already providing superior levels of performance and security in automatic fare collection, access management, eGovernment, and banking applications worldwide.
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