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Network Address Translation

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Cisco IOS Network Address Translation (NAT) is mechanisms for conserving
registered IP addresses in large networks, and they also simplify IP addressing
tasks.
NAT translate IP addresses within private internal networks to legal IP addresses for
transport over public external networks such as the Internet without requiring a
registered subnet address.

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Problems with IPv4
Shortage of IPv4 addresses
Allocation of the last IPv4 addresses was for the year 2005
Address classes were replaced by usage of CIDR, but this is not sufficient
Short term solution
NAT: Network Address Translator
Long term solution
IPv6 = IPng (IP next generation)
Provides an extended address range
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Private IP 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

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NAT terminology

Inside local address
Inside global address
Outside local address
Outside global address


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Inside local address: The IPv4 address that is assigned to a host on the inside network.
The inside local address is likely not an IPv4 address assigned by the Network
Information Center or service provider.

Inside global address: A legitimate IPv4 address assigned by the NIC or service provider
that represents one or more inside local IPv4 addresses to the outside world.

Outside local address: The IPv4 address of an outside host as it appears to the inside
network. Not necessarily legitimate, the outside local address is allocated from a
routable address space on the inside.

Outside global address: The IPv4 address that is assigned to a host on the outside
network by the host owner. The outside global address is allocated from a globally
routable address or network space.

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Address Translation Types

Static Address Translation.
Dynamic Address Translation,
Port Address Translation (PAT)

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Static NAT: Maps an unregistered IPv4 address to a registered IPv4 address (one
to one). Static NAT is particularly useful when a device must be accessible
from outside the network.

Dynamic NAT: Maps an unregistered IPv4 address to a registered IPv4 address
from a group of registered IPv4 addresses.

PAT : Maps multiple unregistered IPv4 addresses to a single registered IPv4
address (many to one) by using different ports.

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Static NAT
With static NAT, a manual translation is performed by an
address translation device, translating one IP address to a different one.

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Dynamic NAT
With dynamic NAT, you must manually define two sets of addresses on your address translation
device. One set defines which inside addresses are allowed to be translated (the local
addresses), and the other defines what these addresses are to be translated to (the global
addresses).


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Port Address Translation (PAT)
PAT allows you to translate multiple internal addresses into a single external address,
essentially allowing the internal addresses to share one external address.


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PAT uses unique source port numbers on the inside global IPv4 address to distinguish
between translations. Because the port number is encoded in 16 bits, the total
number of internal sessions that NAT can translate into one external address is,
theoretically, as many as 65,536.

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Advantages of NAT

Public IP Address Sharing
Easier Expansion
Greater Local Control
Greater Flexibility In ISP Service
Increased Security
Transparent
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Disadvantages of NAT

Complexity
Compatibility Problems With Certain Applications
Problems With Security Protocols
Performance Reduction

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Summary

Cisco IOS NAT allows an organization with unregistered private addresses to
connect to the Internet by translating those addresses into globally registered IP
addresses.
You can translate your own IP addresses into globally unique IP addresses when
communicating outside of your network.
Overloading is a form of dynamic NAT that maps multiple unregistered IP
addresses to a single registered IP address (many-to-one) by using different
ports, known also as PAT.

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The End