This part of ISO/IEC 14443 describes the following:

- polling for proximity cards or objects (PICCs) entering the field of a proximity coupling device (PCD);

- the byte format, the frames and timing used during the initial phase of communication between PCDs and PICCs;

- the initial Request and Answer to Request command content;

- methods to detect and communicate with one PICC among several PICCs (anticollision);

- other parameters required to initialize communications between a PICC and PCD;

- optional means to ease and speed up the selection of one PICC among several PICCs based on application criteria;

- optional capability to allow a device to alternate between the functions of a PICC and a PCD to communicate with a PCD or a PICC, respectively. A device which implements this capability is called a PXD.

Protocol and commands used by higher layers and by applications and which are used after the initial phase are described in ISO/IEC 14443‑4.

This part of ISO/IEC 14443 is applicable to PICCs of Type A and of Type B (as described in ISO/IEC 14443‑2) and PCDs (as described in ISO/IEC 14443‑2) and to PXDs.

NOTE 1 Part of the timing of data communication is defined in ISO/IEC 14443‑2.

NOTE 2 Test methods for this part of ISO/IEC 14443 are defined in ISO/IEC 10373‑6.