What Is Network Address Translation (NAT)?

How does NAT work?

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a service that operates on a router or edge platform to connect private networks to public networks like the internet. NAT is often implemented at the WAN edge router to enable internet access in core, campus, branch, and colocation sites.

With NAT, an organization needs one IP address or one limited public IP address to represent an entire group of devices as they connect outside their network. Port Address Translation (PAT) enables one single IP to be shared by multiple hosts using IP and port address translation.

Is NAT a security feature on a router?

NAT is a networking feature that can help reduce organizational security risk by hiding internal networks from public networks. By default, outside public IPs cannot communicate to an internal private IP host if there is no pre-existing NAT translation. So, NAT separates public and private networks.

Additionally, organizations that use NAT can implement and maintain multilayer security to block threats and protect against malicious activity. Your edge platform may be able to perform these essential security services.

How can NAT help transition to IPv6?

While IPv6 offers a large number of IP address space to fulfill increasing host demands in today’s networks, chances are you need IPv6 and IPv4 addresses to coexist in your network.

NAT can help support this coexistence and transition, allowing IPv6-only devices to communicate with IPv4-only devices and vice versa. NAT allows organizations to connect IPv6 and IPv4 networks using NAT64 translations.

As a networking service, it’s important that NAT is supported with underlay performance.