Physical access control system with smartcard and methods of operating

1. A physical access control system comprising:

an online portion including a controller and an online reader connected to the controller;

an offline portion including an offline reader and an entry/exit point;

a smartcard configured to communicate and transfer information with the online reader and offline reader, the smartcard including a computer processor and memory coupled with the computer processor;

wherein the computer processor is configured to:

compare an offline reader identifier received from the offline reader to access control information stored in the memory;

determine an access privilege associated with the offline reader identifier;

match the determined access privilege with credentials stored in the memory of the smartcard; and

output a signal to the offline reader that requests the offline reader to grant or deny access to the entry/exit point; and

wherein the offline reader is configured to determine whether to grant or deny access based upon whether a smartcard identifier associated with the smartcard is on a revoked list.

2. The physical access control system of claim 1 , wherein the offline reader identifier comprises a unique reader identifier that includes one or more of an organization identifier, a country/region identifier, a city/county identifier, a facility identifier, a subfacility identifier, a building identifier, a zone identifier, and a door identifier.

3. The physical access control system of claim 2 , wherein the access control information comprises an updated version of a revoked list.

4. The physical access control system of claim 2 , wherein the access control information comprises offline reader status information.

5. A physical access control system of claim 1 , wherein the smartcard is configured to:

transmit a revoked list stored in the memory from the smartcard to the offline reader.

6. The physical access control system of claim 1 , wherein the offline reader is configured to:

deny access to the entry/exit point if the revoked list contains the smartcard identifier; and

grant access to the entry/exit point if the smartcard identifier does not appear on the revoked list.

7. The physical access control system of claim 1 , wherein the offline reader is configured to transfer at least one of transactional information and status information to the smartcard.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, at a smartcard having a processor and a memory, a reader identifier from an offline reader;

comparing the received reader identifier to access control information stored in the memory of the smartcard;

determining an access privilege associated with the reader identifier;

matching the determined access privilege with credentials stored in the memory of the smartcard;

outputting a signal to the offline reader requesting the offline reader to grant or deny access to an entry/exit point; and

determining, at the offline reader, whether to grant or deny access to the entry/exit port based upon whether a smartcard identifier associated with the smartcard is on a revoked list.

9. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

opening a secure communication channel between the smartcard and the offline reader using one or more cryptographic keys;

transferring the smartcard identifier from smartcard to the offline reader;

determining whether the smartcard is valid; and

transferring the offline reader identifier from the offline reader to the smartcard.

10. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

storing the offline reader identifier on the smartcard;

checking for the offline reader identifier in access control information previously stored on the smartcard;

determining access privileges, if any, associated with the smartcard identifier and the received offline reader identifier; and

if no access privileges exist, denying access to an entry/exit point.

11. The method of claims 8 and further comprising:

logging transactional information to a memory of the smartcard.

12. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

transmitting a revoked list stored in the smartcard from the smartcard to the offline reader.

13. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

accessing a revoked list stored in a memory of the offline reader.

14. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

transmitting at least one of transactional information and status information from the offline reader to the smartcard.

15. The method of claim 8 and further comprising:

transmitting information received by the smartcard from the offline reader to an online reader.