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Network Address Translation (NAT)

This document discusses Network Address Translation (NAT) which allows hosts on private networks to communicate with hosts on the public Internet. It covers how NAT works by replacing IP addresses and port numbers at the boundary between private and public networks. It also describes different applications of NAT like IP address pooling, supporting network migration, IP masquerading, load balancing servers, and issues around fragmentation, end-to-end connectivity, and supporting applications like FTP that embed IP addresses.

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403 views19 pages

Network Address Translation (NAT)

This document discusses Network Address Translation (NAT) which allows hosts on private networks to communicate with hosts on the public Internet. It covers how NAT works by replacing IP addresses and port numbers at the boundary between private and public networks. It also describes different applications of NAT like IP address pooling, supporting network migration, IP masquerading, load balancing servers, and issues around fragmentation, end-to-end connectivity, and supporting applications like FTP that embed IP addresses.

Uploaded by

telecom_457036
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Network Address Translation (NAT)

Relates to Lab 7.
Module about private networks and NAT.

Taken from http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~itlab/


book/slides/module17-nat.ppt
1
Private Network

• Private IP network is an IP network that is not directly


connected to the Internet

• IP addresses in a private network can be assigned arbitrarily.


– Not registered and not guaranteed to be globally unique

• Generally, private networks use addresses from the following


experimental address ranges (non-routable addresses):
– 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
– 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
– 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255

2
Private Addresses

3
Network Address Translation (NAT)

• NAT is a router function where IP addresses (and possibly


port numbers) of IP datagrams are replaced at the boundary
of a private network

• NAT is a method that enables hosts on private networks to


communicate with hosts on the Internet

• NAT is run on routers that connect private networks to the


public Internet, to replace the IP address-port pair of an IP
packet with another IP address-port pair.

4
Basic operation of NAT

• NAT device has address translation table

5
Pooling of IP addresses

• Scenario: Corporate network has many hosts but only a


small number of public IP addresses
• NAT solution:
– Corporate network is managed with a private address
space
– NAT device, located at the boundary between the
corporate network and the public Internet, manages a pool
of public IP addresses
– When a host from the corporate network sends an IP
datagram to a host in the public Internet, the NAT device
picks a public IP address from the address pool, and binds
this address to the private address of the host

6
Pooling of IP addresses

7
Supporting migration between network service
providers

• Scenario: In CIDR, the IP addresses in a corporate network are obtained


from the service provider. Changing the service provider requires changing
all IP addresses in the network.
• NAT solution:
– Assign private addresses to the hosts of the corporate network
– NAT device has static address translation entries which bind the
private address of a host to the public address.
– Migration to a new network service provider merely requires an update
of the NAT device. The migration is not noticeable to the hosts on the
network.
Note:
– The difference to the use of NAT with IP address pooling is that the
mapping of public and private IP addresses is static.

8
Supporting migration between network service
providers

9
IP masquerading

• Also called: Network address and port translation


(NAPT), port address translation (PAT).
• Scenario: Single public IP address is mapped to multiple
hosts in a private network.
• NAT solution:
– Assign private addresses to the hosts of the corporate
network
– NAT device modifies the port numbers for outgoing traffic

10
IP masquerading

11
Load balancing of servers

• Scenario: Balance the load on a set of identical servers,


which are accessible from a single IP address

• NAT solution:
– Here, the servers are assigned private addresses
– NAT device acts as a proxy for requests to the server from
the public network
– The NAT device changes the destination IP address of
arriving packets to one of the private addresses for a
server
– A sensible strategy for balancing the load of the servers is
to assign the addresses of the servers in a round-robin
fashion.

12
Load balancing of servers

13
Concerns about NAT

• Performance:
– Modifying the IP header by changing the IP address
requires that NAT boxes recalculate the IP header
checksum
– Modifying port number requires that NAT boxes recalculate
TCP checksum
• Fragmentation
– Care must be taken that a datagram that is fragmented
before it reaches the NAT device, is not assigned a
different IP address or different port numbers for each of
the fragments.

14
Concerns about NAT

• End-to-end connectivity:
– NAT destroys universal end-to-end reachability of hosts on
the Internet.
– A host in the public Internet often cannot initiate
communication to a host in a private network.
– The problem is worse, when two hosts that are in a private
network need to communicate with each other.

15
Concerns about NAT

• IP address in application data:


– Applications that carry IP addresses in the payload of the
application data generally do not work across a private-
public network boundary.
– Some NAT devices inspect the payload of widely used
application layer protocols and, if an IP address is detected
in the application-layer header or the application payload,
translate the address according to the address translation
table.

16
NAT and FTP

• Normal FTP operation

17
NAT and FTP

• NAT device with FTP support

18
NAT and FTP

• FTP in passive mode and NAT.

19

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