Wavelynx's Jacob Jablonski talks about the LEAF protocol and how universities can use the open architecture approach to forge a vendor agnostic campus card system. Also hear how the University of Georgia worked with Wavelynx to own its own keys.

A newcomer to the campus card space, Wavelynx Technologies is championing a different approach to structuring a university card transaction system by promoting an open infrastructure with the freedom to mix and match solutions.

Underpinning Wavelynx's approach is LEAF, an open architecture protocol that doesn't leverage proprietary data formats that often marry campuses to their solutions providers. In practice, LEAF offers a campus the ability to patchwork together reader hardware and purchase cardstock from the suppliers of their choosing.

Wavelynx was one of a consortium of companies to help establish LEAF. But LEAF is also an open protocol, meaning other hardware and access control reader manufacturers can freely use it to build out compatible products.

The first university to buy into Wavelynx's approach was the University of Georgia, where university officials placed a premium on the freedom to pick and choose their own card transaction components. As part of the company's work at the University of Georgia, Wavelynx and the team at UGA selected a DESFire EV2 credential to issue to its students. In addition to being a future ready credential, DESFire EV2 cards also offered UGA ample memory to add custom applications as the university saw fit.