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NAT and PAT

NAT and PAT are protocols that allow private IP addresses on an internal network to connect to the public internet by mapping them to public IP addresses. NAT maps private IP addresses to public IP addresses in a one-to-one or many-to-one relationship, while PAT maps multiple private IP addresses to a single public IP address using ports. The main purpose is to conserve limited public IP addresses by allowing many private addresses to share public addresses.

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99 views4 pages

NAT and PAT

NAT and PAT are protocols that allow private IP addresses on an internal network to connect to the public internet by mapping them to public IP addresses. NAT maps private IP addresses to public IP addresses in a one-to-one or many-to-one relationship, while PAT maps multiple private IP addresses to a single public IP address using ports. The main purpose is to conserve limited public IP addresses by allowing many private addresses to share public addresses.

Uploaded by

Abenezer Tariku
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NAT and PAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT) are the
protocols used to map the unregistered private (inside local) address of an internal
network to a registered public (inside global) address of an external network
before transferring the packet. The main difference between them is that NAT is
used to map public IP addresses to private IP addresses, it could be a one-to-one
or many-to-one relation. On the other hand, PAT is a type of NAT where the
multiple private IP addresses are mapped into a single public IP (many-to-one) by
using ports.

An internal network user having a private IP (unregistered) could not


connect to the internet or external network because each device in a
network must have a unique IP address. NAT works on a router connecting
two networks together, and it translates the internal network private
address (i.e. not globally unique) into the legal public address.

Additionally, it was devised to conserve the IP addresses. As the internet


users were facing a problem of IP address scarcity, where the number of
users was increased more than the limited range of IP addresses. For this
reason, NAT and PAT protocols are used.

Comparing NAT and PAT

BASIS FOR NAT PAT


COMPARISON

Basic Translates the private local Similar to NAT it also


IP address to the public translates the private IP
global IP address. addresses of an internal
network to the public IP
address with the help of
Port numbers.

Relationship Superset of PAT. Variant of NAT (form of


a Dynamic NAT).

Uses IPv4 address IPv4 addresses along


with the port number.

Types Static NAT Static PAT

Dynamic NAT Overloaded PAT


Definition of NAT

Network Address Translation (NAT) basically connects two networks


and map the private (inside local) addresses into public addresses (inside
global). Here the term inside local signifies that the host address belongs
to an internal network (Private IP address space) and not assigned by a
public address from a service provider. And the inside global means
that the address is a licit address assigned by a public address from a
service provider and it also represents one or more inside local addresses
to the outside world.

The main purpose of NAT was to slow down the rate of depletion of available
IP address space by enabling many private IP addresses to be represented
by some smaller number of public IP addresses.

Furthermore, only one address can


be configured in NAT to represent the
entire network to the outside world.
Therefore it provides security as the
translation process is transparent.
NAT can be used as a tool for network
migration and merging, server load
sharing, virtual server creation, etc.

NAT can be of three types :

 Static NAT – In this type of NAT a local address is mapped to a global


address, and there exists a one-to-one relationship. Static NAT is
useful when a host requires a consistent address, which must be
accessed from the internet. For example, enterprise servers or
networking devices.
 Dynamic NAT – Dynamic NAT allows unregistered private IP address
to be translated into registered public IP address from a pool of public
IP addresses.
 PAT/ NAT Overloading/IP masquerading – PAT is most popular type
among the three types. It is a variant of Dynamic NAT and is similar to it,
but it maps multiple private IP addresses to a single public IP address by
making use of ports.

Definition of PAT
Port Address Translation (PAT) is a type of Dynamic NAT through which
address translation can be configured at the port level, and the remaining
IP address usage is also optimized. PAT maps multiple source local
addresses and ports to a single global IP address and port from a pool of
IP addresses that are routable on the destination network. Here the
interface IP address is used in combination with the port number and
multiple hosts could have same IP address because the port number is
unique.

It uses unique source port address on the inside global IP address to


identify the distinct translations. The total number of NAT translations that
can be carried out is 65536 because the port number is encoded in 16 bits.

Original source ports are preserved by


the PAT. If the source port is already
allocated the available ports are
searched. The port groups are divided
into three ranges that are from 0 to 511,
512 to 1023, or 1024 to 65535.If PAT
doesn’t get any available port from the
appropriate port group and if more than
one external IPv4 address is configured,
PAT moves to the next IPv4 address and
attempts to allocate the original source
port until it runs out of available ports
and external IPv4 addresses.

Key Differences between NAT and PAT


1. NAT translates the inside local addresses into inside global addresses
similarly PAT translates the private unregistered IP addresses into
public registered IP addresses, but unlike NAT it uses source port
numbers also, and multiple hosts can be assigned with the same IP
having different port numbers.
2. PAT is a form of Dynamic NAT.
3. NAT uses IP addresses in the process of translation whereas PAT uses
IP addresses along with port numbers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of NAT
Advantages

 NAT preserves the registered public addresses and slows down the
depletion of the IP address space.
 Occurrence of address overlap significantly reduces.
 Increases flexibility of the connection establishment.
 Removes the process of address renumbering at the time of changing
network.
Disadvantages

 Switching path delays are the outcome of the translation.


 Lack of end-to-end traceability.
 Certain applications are not compatible with NAT.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PAT


Advantages

 Conserve IP addresses by assigning single public IP to a group of hosts


with the help of the different port numbers.
 Lessens the vulnerabilities or security attacks as the private address
prevent the public address from being exposed.

Disadvantages

 More than one same type of public services cannot be executed with
a single IP address in PAT.
 Number of entries are limited in the internal table for keeping the
tracks of the connections.

Conclusion
NAT and PAT protocols are used for minimizing the requirement of globally
unique IP addresses, allowing a host whose address is not globally unique
to connect to the internet, by converting the addresses into global address
space which is routable. There is a slight difference between NAT and PAT
is that NAT doesn’t use ports while PAT uses source ports in the translation
process.

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