Secure and Trustworthy NFC-based Sensor Readout for Battery Packs in Battery Management Systems

Wireless battery management systems (BMSs) are increasingly being considered for modern applications. The ever-increasing complexity and production costs of BMS modules and wired connections resulted in a necessity for new ideas and approaches. Despite this growing trend, there is a lack of generic solutions focused on battery cells’ sensor readout, where wireless communication allows for a more flexible and cost-efficient sensor installation in battery packs. Many wireless technologies, such as those that use the 2.4 GHz frequency band, suffer from interference and other limitations. In this article, we present an alternative approach to communication in BMS that relies on the use of near field communication (NFC) technology for battery sensor readouts. As an answer to the rising concern over the counterfeited battery packs, we consider an authentication schema for battery pack validation. We further consider security measures for the processed and stored BMS status data. To show that a general BMS application can make use of our design, we implement a BMS demonstrator using the targeted components. We further test the demonstrator on the technical and functional level, by also performing evaluation on its performance, energy usage, and a security threat model.