Patent ID: 7587598

Claim:
A method for establishing a network communication session using fast authentication comprising: establishing a first session between a client and a server in a network with full authentication, said first session using a first authentication layer and a first network interface and said establishing a first session comprising determining a first session identifier associated with the first session; receiving a request for establishing a second session, said second session using a second authentication layer and a second network interface and said request comprising a second session identifier; comparing the second session identifier with the first session identifier; establishing the second session with fast authentication corresponding to the first session and based on said comparing; maintaining, at the server, a count that indicates a number of entities or protocol modules that share sessions the network communication session; terminating the communication session responsive to determining that the count indicates that there are no additional entities or protocol modules sharing in the network communication session; wherein the first authentication layer and the second authentication layers are different authentication layers; and wherein the first network interface and the second network interface are different network interfaces.