DSE-Sem2-Computer Networks

Network Address Translation (NAT) & Port Address Translation (PAT)

NAT is designed for IP address conservation/ saving/mapping. It enables private IP networks

that use unregistered IP addresses to connect to the Internet. NAT operates on a router,
usually connecting two networks together, and translates the private (not globally unique)
addresses in the internal network into real/legal addresses, before packets are forwarded to
another network.

As part of this capability, NAT can be configured to advertise only one address for the entire
network to the outside world. This provides additional security by effectively hiding the
entire internal network behind that address. NAT offers the dual functions of security and
address conservation.

Dynamic NAT - Is used when you have a “pool” of public IP addresses that you want to
assign to your internal hosts dynamically. Don’t use dynamic NAT for servers or other
devices that need to be accessible from the Internet.

NAT Overload (Sometimes also called PAT) - Is probably the most used type of NAT. You
have only one public IP address allocated by your ISP. In this case, NAT maps all your inside
hosts to the available public IP address.

Static NAT - Is used to do a one-to-one mapping between an inside address and an outside
address. Static NAT also allows connections from an outside host to an inside host. Usually,
static NAT is used for servers inside your network.

National Institute of Business Management 1