US Patent 7503065 Method and system for gateway-based authentication

A method and system permits efficient user authentication based on a gateway rather than information or hardware of a user's communication device. The system may include a gateway that is operated by a trusted entity, the gateway logically connected between a communication network, such as the Internet, and the user's device. The gateway can authenticate a user using device-specific as well as user-specific identifiers, and the authentication can then be passed on to multiple applications that are accessible via the network.