Guido Zavagli

Mobile Payments - State of the Art and Open Problems

We describe electronic payment solutions and the technical problems, which have to be solved in order to make these payments mobile. Mobile payments should be both secure and convenient for the consumer. The problems of implementing mobile payment systems are manifold. The technical capabilities of mobile devices are - at least today - too limited to allow a simple re-use of existing Internet payment protocols. Moreover, a number of different mobile application environments exist today, which differ from a technical perspective as well as from geographical spread. This makes it extremely difficult to define mobile payment protocols, which can be used on a global basis. Therefore, compromise solutions have to be found and standardized, which offer a reasonable level of security based on the existing functions offered in mobile devices and networks.