Usable authentication systems for real time web-based audio/video communications

User experience and general usability are getting more and more important in system development. Such concerns are especially highlighted when extra security features generate overhead which could easily lead to user frustration. The WebRTC
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standard, as a new multimedia library, endows browsers with universal and stable real time multimedia communication, but it is lacking an authentication system. While it is possible to use common third party authentication services (e.g. from Google, Facebook), these solutions may be too constraining. We have developed a flexible authentication system for a Web-based multimedia communication system using the WebRTC library and the Google channel APIs. It features a user management framework which includes several scenarios of authentication including local as well as cloud-based authentication (e.g. Google and Facebook login). We present different authentication scenarios, and thereafter focus on a study to investigate the degree of usability of the solutions. We propose different authentication solutions for various degree of needs in security requirements in terms of level or user comfort and preferences.