Network Address Translation (NAT)

Relates to Lab 7.

Module about private networks and NAT.

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

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Private Addresses

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.

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Basic operation of NAT

Private Internet
network

Source = 10.0.1.2 Source = 128.143.71.21

Destination = 213.168.112.3 Destination = 213.168.112.3

private address: 10.0.1.2 NAT

public address: 213.168.112.3
public address: 128.143.71.21 device
H1 H5
Source = 213.168.112.3 Source = 213.168.112.3
Destination = 10.0.1.2 Destination = 128.143.71.21

Private Public
Address Address
10.0.1.2 128.143.71.21

• NAT device has address translation table

Main uses of NAT

• Pooling of IP addresses

• Supporting migration between network service providers

• IP masquerading

• Load balancing of servers

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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

Pooling of IP addresses

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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.

Supporting migration between network service

providers

Source = 128.143.71.21 ISP 1

Destination = 213.168.112.3
allocates address block
Source = 10.0.1.2 128.143.71.0/24 to private
Destination = 213.168.112.3 network:
128.143.71.21
private address: 10.0.1.2
NAT
public address: 128.143.71.21
128.195.4.120 device
H1 128.195.4.120
ISP 2
Private allocates address block
network 128.195.4.0/24 to private
Source = 128.195.4.120
Destination = 213.168.112.3 network:

Private Public
Address Address
128.143.71.21
10.0.1.2
128.195.4.120

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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

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IP masquerading

Source = 10.0.1.2 Source = 128.143.71.21

Source port = 2001 Source port = 2100

private address: 10.0.1.2

NAT 128.143.71.21
H1 Private network Internet
device
private address: 10.0.1.3

H2 Source = 10.0.1.3 Source = 128.143.71.21

Source port = 3020 Destination = 4444

Private Public
Address Address
10.0.1.2/2001 128.143.71.21/2100
10.0.1.3/3020 128.143.71.21/4444

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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.

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Load balancing of servers

Private network

S ou
r
D es ce
t ina =1
t ion 2
10.0.1.2 = 1 8. 195 Source = 128.195.4.120
0.0 .4
S1 . 1. 2 .1 20 Destination = 128.143.71.21

NAT Source = 213.168.12.3

device Destination = 128.143.71.21
Internet
128.143.71.21
10.0.1.3

S2 1 20
5 .4 .
. 19
28
= 1 .0 . 1 . 4
10.0.1.4 1 0
=
u rce n
S o tin a t io
s
De Inside network Outside network
Private Public Public
Address Address Address
S3
10.0.1.2 128.143.71.21 128.195.4.120
10.0.1.4 128.143.71.21 213.168.12.3

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7
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.

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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.

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8
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.

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NAT and FTP

FTP client FTP server

public address: public address:
128.143.72.21 128.195.4.120

H1 H2
PORT 128.143.72.21/1027

200 PORT command successful

RETR myfile

150 Opening data connection

establish data connection

• Normal FTP operation

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9
NAT and FTP

Private network Internet

FTP client NAT FTP server

private address: 10.0.1.3 device
public address: 128.143.72.21

H1 H2
PORT 10.0.1.3/1027 PORT 128.143.72.21/1027

200 PORT command successful 200 PORT command successful

RETR myfile RETR myfile

150 Opening data connection 150 Opening data connection

establish data connection establish data connection

• NAT device with FTP support

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NAT and FTP

Private network Internet

FTP client NAT FTP server

private address: 10.0.1.3 device public address:
public address: 128.143.72.21 128.195.4.120

H1 H2
PASV PASV

Entering Passive Mode Entering Passive Mode

128.195.4.120/10001 128.195.4.120/10001

Establish data connection Establish data connection

• FTP in passive mode and NAT.

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10
Configuring NAT in Linux

• Linux uses the Netfilter/iptable package to add filtering rules

to the IP module
To application From application

filter nat
INPUT OUTPUT

Yes filter
OUTPUT
Destination No filter
is local? FORWARD

nat nat
PREROUTING POSTROUTING
(DNAT) (SNAT)

Incoming Outgoing
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datagram datagram

Configuring NAT with iptable

• First example:
iptables –t nat –A POSTROUTING –s 10.0.1.2
–j SNAT --to-source 128.143.71.21
• Pooling of IP addresses:
iptables –t nat –A POSTROUTING –s 10.0.1.0/24
–j SNAT --to-source 128.128.71.0–128.143.71.30
• ISP migration:
iptables –t nat –R POSTROUTING –s 10.0.1.0/24
–j SNAT --to-source 128.195.4.0–128.195.4.254
• IP masquerading:
iptables –t nat –A POSTROUTING –s 10.0.1.0/24
–o eth1 –j MASQUERADE
• Load balancing:
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth1 -j DNAT --to-
destination 10.0.1.2-10.0.1.4

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