Network address translation
Published: in a0b2782
Updated: in b1e378a
- Translate private IPv4 addresses to public IPv4 addresses.
- NAT is designed to overcome the shortage of IPv4 addresses. It doesn’t make much sense with IPv6.
- A NAT device like a router maintains a NAT table that maps private IP addresses to public IP addresses.
Static NAT
- One private IP address is mapped to one public address.
- This is how the AWS Internet Gateway works.
Dynamic NAT
- There is a shared pool of public IP addresses. Many private addresses are mapped to the first available public address in this pool.
- The mapping of addresses is temporary.
- Multiple devices can have the same public IP as long as they use the IP at different times.
- Useful when there are many private IP addresses and a lower number of public IP addresses.
Port Address Translation (PAT)
- Many private IP addresses are mapped to a single public address.
- This is likely what a home internet router does.
- This is how the NAT Gateway in AWS works.
- With PAT, ports are also stored in the NAT table. A NAT device allocates public ports which are mapped to the private IP and port of the devices in its network. This is how multiple devices in a network can share a single public IP address.