gistfile1.js

var WebSocketServer = require('ws').Server;
var wss = new WebSocketServer({port: 8080});

var jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

/**
The way I like to work with 'ws' is to convert everything to an event if possible.
**/
function toEvent (message) {
  try {
    var event = JSON.parse(message);
    this.emit(event.type, event.payload);
  } catch(err) {
    console.log('not an event' , err);
  }
}

wss.on('connection', function(ws) {
  ws.on('message', toEvent)
    .on('authenticate', function (data) {
      jwt.verify(data.token, options, function (err, decoded) {
       //now is authenticated
      });
    });
  
  ws.send('something');
});