In this blog, you are going to read about the NAT (Network Address Translation) their Functions, Types, Examples, Advantages, and Disadvantages, and other information related to this article, so stay on this site for further information.
NAT-Network Address Translation
Network address translation (NAT) is where a computer or network device, typically a network firewall, creates a public IP for a computer (or group of computers) inside a private network.
The main function of NAT is to limit the number of public IPs that an organization or company should use for Economy and Security purposes.
Any computer or network device requires an IP address to connect to the Internet. If your company has 10 devices, then only 10 IP addresses will be required to connect to all these internets.
As we know that the Internet is growing at a very high speed and the number of IP addresses is becoming less than necessary, so IPv6 is being developed to deal with this problem, but it will take a long time to be implemented. In such a Situation, NAT (Network Address Translation) is being used to fulfill the requirement of IP address.
NAT is developed by Cisco. This is a mechanism that works between your private network and the Internet. NAT works on any network device and these network devices can be any such as firewall and network router etc. NAT is defined in IETF RFC 1631.
For example, your company has 20 network devices and all those network devices have to be connected to the Internet. this you will need 20 IP Addresses. But using NAT, you can connect all network devices to Internetwork with only one Registered IP Address.
You will not need 20 IP addresses using Network address translation. You can configure all network devices with an Unregistered IP Address. These IP addresses are also called Local IP Addresses. NAT reduces the need for IP Addresses in an organization.
Types of NAT
- Static NAT – This type of network translation designed to allow one-to-one mapping between local and Global Addresses. That the static version requires you to have a real Internetwork IP address for each host on your computer network and network devices.
- Dynamic NAT – This type of network, the ability to mapping an unregistered IP address to a registered IP address from outside a pool of registered IP addresses in your computer networks. You do not have to statistically configure your network routing to map each external IP address to a different external address. You can use static NAT, but you must have enough real, bona fide IP addresses for all of them. Those who are sending and receiving data packets through the Internet at the same time.
- Overloading – This is the most popular type of network translation configuration. Overloading is actually a form of dynamic NAT that maps multiple unregistered IP addresses to a single registered IP address (many-to-one) using separate source ports. It is also known as Port Address Translation (PAT), which is also commonly known as NAT overload. Using PAT you can allow thousands of users to connect to the Internetwork using only one real global IP address, NAT overload is the real reason we do not run out of valid IP addresses on the Internet.
Advantages and disadvantages of NAT
| Advantage | Disadvantage |
| Remedies address overlap events. | Causes loss of end-to-end IP address traceability |
| Increases flexibility when connecting to the Internetwork. | Certain applications will not function with NAT enabled |
| Remedies IP address overlap events. | Causes loss of end-to-end IP address traceability |
When Do We Use NAT?
Network Address Translation (NAT) is similar to the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
in that, the original intention for network address translation was to slow the depletion of available Internet Protocol address space by allowing multiple private IP addresses to be represented by a much smaller number of public IP addresses.
NAT is also a useful technology for network migrations and mergers, server load sharing, and creating “virtual servers.
NAT really decreases the overwhelming amount of public IP addresses required in a networking environment, it comes in really handy when two companies that have duplicate internal addressing schemes merge.
NAT is also a great tool to use when an organization changes its Internet service provider (ISP) but the networking manager needs to avoid the hassle of changing the internal address scheme.
Conclusion
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