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www.hidcorp.com 2006 HID Corporation. All rights reserved.1

Understanding Card Data Formats

Wiegand

FormatThe term Wiegand is applied to several characteristics related to access control readers and cards. Unortunately, the wordis used carelessly and can lead to unnecessary conusion. Here are the basics.

Wiegand is:

1. A specifc reader-to-card interace

2. A specifc binary reader-to-controller interace

3. An electronic signal carrying data

4. The standard 26-bit binary card data ormat

5. An electromagnetic eect

6. A card technology

For the purposes o this white paper, we will address items 2 and 4.

(NOTE: There are additional card/reader attributes that are also described by the term, Wiegand.)

When HID customers say, Wiegand ormat, they typically reer to the general concept o security card data encoding. But

be aware that the term, Wiegand ormat, is also oten understood to mean the standard 26-bit ormat, which is a very specifc

arrangement o binary card data. Some basic acts:

Aformatdescribeswhatanumbermeans,orhowanumberisused.Theformatisnotthenumberitself,

Thenumberofbitsdoesnotindicatetheformatexceptforstandard26-bit.Forexample,thereareover100

dierent 34-bit ormats alone.

Withinagivenbitlength(34-bit,37-bit,etc.),thesizeandlocationofeachdataelementmaychange.Forexample:

o One 34-bit ormat may have an 8-bit Facility Code starting with bit #2.

o Another 34-bit Facility Code may be 12 bits starting with bit # 21.

Thecapabilityoftheaccesscontrolpanelwilldictatewhatformatswillandwillnotwork.

I I see a string o numbers, 19495981699 it may mean nothing. I you describe it as a phone number in the United States,then it is immediately understood that 949 is the area code, etc. Knowledge o the ormat allows you to decode the data. It

alwaysappearsintheformat,(xxx)yyy-zzzz,becausetelephonecompanyswitchingequipmentspeciesitexistinthisformat.

The telephone company has maintained this ormat or many years and migrated to it slowly over the years adding numbers in

groups.Securityequipmenthassimilarformatdemandshoweverthesecurityindustrydoesnotwanttheformatknownand

theyoftenchangetheformatstokeepthechangescondential.

Allspeciccardformatsareidenticalinboth125kHzProxand13.56MHziCLASS cards. This ensures that any controller

capableofunderstandingdatafrom125kHzcardsandreaderswillalsoseamlesslyworkwith13.56MHzcardsandreaders.

The Standard 26-Bit FormatThe ormat in which a card is programmed is determined by the data pattern that will be compatible with the access control

panel. All HID credentials (card, obs, tags, etc.) can be programmed with the standard 26-bit card data ormat.

The Standard 26-bit Format is an Open Format.

AnOpen Format means that anyone can buy HID cards in a specifc ormat and that specifc ormat description is publicly

available. The 26-bit ormat is a widely used industry standard and is available to all HID customers. Almost all access

control systems accept the standard 26-bit ormat. 26-bit originated with true Wiegand swipe card technology.

Technology Basics White Paper

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TheHIDorderingcodenumberfortheStandard26-bitformatisH10301.

H10301has255possiblefacilitycodesfromoneto255.Therecanbeupto65,535cardIDnumbers,fromoneto65,535,

perfacilitycode.Thetotalnumberofcardsthatcanusetheentirerangewithoutduplicationis16,711,425.Thereareno

restrictions on the use o this ormat. It is not documented by HID and HID does not restrict duplication o card numbers.

HIDproducesandmanagesover1,000othercarddataformats,butallofthemsharethesamefundamentalconceptsasthe

26-bitformat.Othercardmanufacturersalsohaveunique,proprietaryformats.

H10301describesbinaryencodeddata.Theformatisrepresentedinthenextgure:

Figure 1: 26-Bit Wiegand Public Format

ThemaximumFacilityCodeis255becauseifalleightFacilityCodebitsaresettoones,theyequal255decimal.

ThemaximumCardNumberis65,535becausewhenallsixteenCardNumbereldbitsareones,itequalsdecimal

65,535.

ANOTEONPARITY:Aparitybitisusedasaverysimplequalitycheckfortheaccuracyofthetransmittedbinarydata.The

designer o the ormat program will decide i each parity bit should be even or odd. A selected group o data bits will be

united with one parity bit, and the total number o bits should result in either an even or odd number.

Intheexampleabove,theleadingparitybit(even)islinkedtotherst12databits.Ifthe12databitsresultinanoddnumber,theparitybitissettoonetomakethe13-bittotalcomeouteven.Thenal13bitsaresimilarlysettoanoddtotal.

Other Hypothetical FormatsTofurtherclarifyhowformatsmaybeorganized,wepresenttwoadditionalhypotheticalexamples.

NOTE:Sinceactualformatsdorequireavaryingdegreeofsecurity,wewillonlypresenthypotheticalexampleswiththe

exceptionofstandard26-bit.

"Standard" 26-Bit Wiegand Format

Parity Configuration

Leading Parity Bit (Even)

Facillity Code (8 Bits)

First 13 Bits (12 data + 1 Parity)

Last 13 Bits (12 data + 1 Parity)

Trailing Parity Bit (Odd)

Card Number (16 bits)

P FFFFFFFF NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN P

PFFFFFFFFNNNN NNNNNNNNNNNNP

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Inthestandard26-bitformat,H10301,ortheprogrammableeldisspeciedastheFacilityCode.Theincrementingeld

is called the Card Number. These data groupings can have many dierent names depending upon which ormat is under

discussion. The same name usually means something dierent rom ormat to ormat. Thereore, another hypothetical

formatcouldlooklikethis:

Figure 2: Hypothetical 36-Bit Card Data Format

TheLeadingParitybitcouldrelatetoonesubsetofthedatastringandtheSecondParitybitrelatetoanentirelydifferentsubset.ThisformatalsohaseldsnamedFacilityCodeandCardNumber,butifyoucompareittoH10301,itsformatisvery

different,andwouldprobablynotworkonacustomerssystemthatwassetupforH10301.

Thepersonwhocreatestheformatsuniqueeldnameshastheabilitytoassignthenamesaswell.Reviewthefollowing

hypothetical ormat:

Figure 3: Hypothetical 30-bit Card Data Format

This ormat has three parity bits, a fve-bit programmable feld called Job Number, another our-bit programmable feld called

RunCode,andan18-bitincrementingeldcalledEmployeeNumber.

Whentakinginformationfromacustomerabouttheirformat,itisimportanttoobtaintheexactvaluestheywantinthe

programmable felds. The customer, not HID, supplies this inormation.

Pleasenotethatcustomersoftenconfusetheterms,FacilityCodeandSiteCode.SomeformatshaveaeldcalledFacilityCodeandothershaveaSiteCode,whileothersmayhaveneitherorboth.Youmustbecertaintoutilizethecorrectterms

when ordering your cards.

Toavoidduplicatingcardsthatarealreadyinuseonasite,customersmustknowtheexistingcardnumbers.

Systeminstallerswillalsoneedtoknowtheformatname,andspeciceldinformationinordertosetuptheirsecuritypanels

and enroll cards. In act, it is almost impossible to batch enroll cards without these specifcs. HID always includes a Cross

ReferenceListwitheverycardorderthathastheformat,andallspeciccarddatalisted.HIDsalesordersandcardbox

labels also include this same inormation.

Leading Parity Bit

Second Parity Bit

Facillity Code (10 Bits)

Card # (24 Bits)

P P FFFFFFFFFF NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

3 Parity Bits

Job Number (5 Bits)

Employee # (18 Bits)

Run Code (4 Bits)

PPP JJJJJ RRRR NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

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Corporate 1000HIDoffersauniquecarddataformatprogramnamedCorporate1000,wheretheenduserownstheuniqueformatandHID

guaranteesthatthecustomersformatwillnotbeduplicated.Furthermore,thecustomermustprovidewrittenauthorization

toHIDforanintegratorordistributor,etc.tobeabletopurchasethespeciedCorporate1000cardsfromHID.Thisgivesthecustomerabsolutecontroloverthemanufacture,distributionanddeliveryoftheirspeciccards.AdditionalCorporate1000

acts:

ThecustomersaccesscontrolpanelsmustbecapableofdecodingtheCorporate1000format.

AllCorporate1000formatsare35bitslongbutthedatawillbearrangedindifferentincrementsalongthat35-bit

string.Acardnumber,forexample,maybebrokenintothreeormorepartsandrandomlyspacedalongthestring.

ThisensuresuniquenessineveryCorporate1000format.

HIDcurrentlymanagesseveralhundreduniqueCorporate1000formatsandmanymorearestillreadilyavailable.

Aswithallotherformats,Corporate1000formatsareidenticalin125kHzProxand13.56MHziCLASScontactless

smart card technology.

The Wiegand Reader-to-Controller Interface

An interace defnes how two devices communicate with one another. Various HID readers can communicate with accesscontrol panels using a variety o well-established, industry-standard interaces including:

Wiegand

Serial(RS232,RS422,RS485)

Clock-and-Data(MagneticStripeTrack/2)AlsoknownasABAformat.

We will concentrate on the Wiegand interace because it is the most prominent industry interace or card access control.

The Wiegand interace consists o three conductors (wires) called Data Zero (usually green), Data One (usually white), and

DataReturn(usuallyblack).WheninstallersobtainanHIDreader,theyexpecttoseethesethreenamesontheconnection

points (terminals) or both the reader and the access control panel. All current standard HID reader types are available with a

Wiegand interace. The three wires carry Wiegand data, also called the Wiegand signal.

Sincethecarddataisbinary,thereadersimplyreceivestheradiofrequency(RF)datafromthecard,translatesitfromRFtoWiegand protocol and sends the complete binary string to the controller. Zeros travel on the green wire, ones on the white

wire and the controller combines the two strings o characters into the original set o binary data.

NOTE:Thereaderperformsnoprocessingorqualitycheckingofthedata.Itsimplyreceivesthe(RF)datafromthecardand

converts it to Wiegand protocol or immediate transmission to the controller.

Panel Format SettingsAccess control panels are built to reject card data that does not conorm to a specifc pre-defned ormat. Almost all panels

canusethe26-bitstandardformat(possiblyinadditiontothemanufacturersownproprietaryformats).Simplepanelsmight

use only one or two ormats, but more sophisticated panels are sotware confgurable and accept virtually all o the dierent

formats.Somecanevencreatecustomizedformats.Onceaformatisdetermined,thepanelisthencongured.Proximity

cardsmustbeorderedforusewiththatconguredformatandthecardmustbeprogrammedtoconformtothepanelsformat

in order to unction.

Thisone-wayowofsetupinformationfrompaneltocardisintentional.Itmakesitdifcultforanunauthorizedpersonwho

ndsaproximitycardtoknowwhereandhowtouseit.Evenapersonwiththetechnicalknowledgeandequipmentcannot

positively identiy the card ormat. The reason is due to the ormat inormation residing in the panel and not on the card. A

formatisnotanumberitisawayoflookingatanumber.Thecarddatamerelyconformstothepanelformat.

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There are several essential pieces o inormation or placing HID card orders.

FormatName(Example:H10301.cdf)-HIDprogramscardsforourcustomersusinghundredsofexistingformats.

There is no deault ormat. The customer must always speciy to HID which ormat they want.

Programmableeldinformation-LookingagainatH10301.cdf,ithasaLeadingone-bitparityeld,followedbyan

eight-bitprogrammableeld,a16-bitincrementingeldandaTrailingParitybit.

Math Translations Decimal, Binary and HexadecimalWhile our everyday math is based on the decimal system, computers always use binary math. In binary, each column can

onlycontainaone(1)orzero(0).Binarydataisoftencombinedtogetherintoconvenientfour-bithexadecimal,orhexunits

calledNybbles.Hexvaluesaredisplayedas0F.

1 00000001 1

2 00000010 2

3 00000011 3

4 00000100 4

5 00000101 5

6 00000110 6

7 00000111 7

8 00001000 8

9 00001001 9

10 00001010 A

11 00001011 B

12 00001100 C

13 00001101 D

14 00001110 E

15 00001111 F16 00010000 10

32 00100000 20

64 01000000 40

100 01100100 64

Withhexadecimal,24bitscanberepresentedwithonlysixcharacters.

(1111) ( 1111) (1111) (1111) (1111) (1111) Groups o our bits called Nybbles.

F F F F F F

AFacilityCodeof255lookslikeFFinhex(15x16)+15=255

Anidenticationnumberof65535lookslikeFFFFinhex

(15x4096)+(15x256)+(15x16)+15=65535

Manypanelsusehexadecimalmathbecauseitiscompact,anddirectlyrepresentsbinary.HIDProxPro andMaxiProx

readerscanbeconguredtooutputdatatothepanelinhexviaRS232orRS422.

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