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Traditional IP Network Address Translator (Traditional NAT)
draft-ietf-nat-traditional-04

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 3022.
Authors Kjeld Borch Egevang , Pyda Srisuresh
Last updated 2013-03-02 (Latest revision 2000-04-10)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Informational
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IESG IESG state Became RFC 3022 (Informational)
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draft-ietf-nat-traditional-04
NAT Working Group                                           P. Srisuresh
INTERNET-DRAFT                                     Campio Communications
Obsoletes: RFC 1631                                           K. Egevang
Category: Informational                                Intel Corporation
Expires as of October 9, 2000                              April 9, 2000

         Traditional IP Network Address Translator (Traditional NAT)
                   <draft-ietf-nat-traditional-04.txt>

Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with
   all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups.  Note that
   other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-
   Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six 
   months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents 
   at any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet- Drafts as 
   reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt

   The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at
   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

Preface

   The NAT operation described in this document extends address 
   translation introduced in RFC 1631 and includes a new type 
   of network address and TCP/UDP port translation.  In addition, 
   this document corrects the Checksum adjustment algorithm 
   published in RFC 1631 and attempts to discuss NAT operation 
   and limitations in detail.

Abstract

   Basic Network Address Translation or Basic NAT is a method by which 
   IP addresses are mapped from one group to another, transparent to 
   end users. Network Address Port Translation, or NAPT is a method by 

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   which many network addresses and their TCP/UDP ports are translated 
   into a single network address and its TCP/UDP ports.  Together, 
   these two operations, referred to as traditional NAT, provide a 
   mechanism to connect a realm with private addresses to an 
   external realm with globally unique registered addresses.

1. Introduction

   The need for IP Address translation arises when a network's internal 
   IP addresses cannot be used outside the network either for privacy 
   reasons or because they are invalid for use outside the network. 

   Network topology outside a local domain can change in many ways. 
   Customers may change providers, company backbones may be 
   reorganized, or providers may merge or split.  Whenever external 
   topology changes with time, address assignment for nodes within the
   local domain must also change to reflect the external changes.
   Changes of this type can be hidden from users within the domain
   by centralizing changes to a single address translation router.

   Basic Address translation would (in many cases, except as  noted in 
   RFC 2663 and section 6 of this document) allow hosts in a private 
   network to transparently access the external network and enable 
   access to selective local hosts from the outside. Organizations with
   a network setup predominantly for internal use, with a need for 
   occasional external access are good candidates for this scheme.

   Many Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) users and telecommuting 
   employees have multiple Network nodes in their office, running 
   TCP/UDP applications, but have a single IP address assigned to 
   their remote access router by their service provider to access 
   remote networks. This ever increasing community of remote access 
   users would be benefited by NAPT, which would permit multiple 
   nodes in a local network to simultaneously access remote networks 
   using the single IP address assigned to their router. 

   There are limitations to using the translation method. It is 
   mandatory that all requests and responses pertaining to a session
   be routed via the same NAT router. One way to ascertain this would 
   be to have NAT based on a border router that is unique to a stub 
   domain, where all IP packets are either originated from the domain
   or destined to the domain. There are other ways to ensure this
   with multiple NAT devices. For example, a private domain could have
   two distinct exit points to different providers and the session flow
   from the hosts in a private network could traverse through whichever 
   NAT device has the best metric for an external host.

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   Address translation is application independent and often accompanied 
   by application specific gateways (ALGs) to perform payload 
   monitoring and alterations. FTP is the most popular ALG resident on 
   NAT devices. Applications requiring ALG intervention must not have 
   their payload encoded, as doing that would effectively disables the 
   ALG, unless the ALG has the key to decrypt the the payload. 

   This solution has the disadvantage of taking away the end-to-end
   significance of an IP address, and making up for it with increased
   state in the network. As a result, end-to-end IP network level
   security assured by IPSec cannot be assumed to end hosts, with a
   NAT device enroute. The advantage of this approach however is that 
   it can be installed without changes to hosts or routers. 

   The definition of terms used in this document may be found in "IP 
   Network Address Translator Terminology and Considerations" [REF1].

2. Overview of traditional NAT

   The Address Translation operation presented in this document is
   referred to as "Traditional NAT". There are other variations of
   NAT that will not be explored in this document. Traditional NAT
   would allow hosts within a private network to transparently
   access hosts in the external network, in most cases. In a
   traditional NAT, sessions are uni-directional, outbound from the
   private network. Sessions in the opposite direction may be allowed
   on an exceptional basis using static address maps for pre-selected
   hosts. Basic NAT and NAPT are two variations of traditional NAT,
   in that translation is Basic NAT is limited to IP addresses alone,
   whereas translation in NAPT is extended to include IP address and
   Transport identifier (such as TCP/UDP port or ICMP query ID).
   
   Unless mentioned otherwise, Address Translation or NAT throughout
   this document will pertain to traditional NAT, namely Basic NAT
   as well as NAPT.  Only the stub border routers as described in
   figure 1 below may be configured to perform address translation.

        \ | /                 .                                /
   +---------------+  WAN     .           +-----------------+/
   |Regional Router|----------------------|Stub Router w/NAT|---
   +---------------+          .           +-----------------+\
                              .                      |         \
                              .                      |  LAN
                              .               ---------------
                        Stub border

Srisuresh & Egevang                                             [Page 3]
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            Figure 1: Traditional NAT Configuration

2.1 Overview of Basic NAT

   Basic NAT operation is as follows. A stub domain with a set of
   private network addresses could be enabled to communicate with
   external network by dynamically mapping to a set of globally valid
   network addresses. If the number of local nodes are less than or
   equal to addresses in the global set, each local address is
   guaranteed a global address to map to. Otherwise, nodes allowed to
   have simultaneous access to external network are limited by the
   number of addresses in global set. Individual local addresses may
   be statically mapped to specific global addresses to ensure
   guaranteed access to the outside or to allow access to the local
   host from external hosts.  Multiple simultaneous sessions may be
   initiated from a local node, using the same address mapping.
   
   Addresses inside a stub domain are local to that domain and not
   valid outside the domain. Thus, addresses inside a stub domain
   can be reused by any other stub domain. For instance, a single
   Class A address could be used by many stub domains. At each exit
   point between a stub domain and backbone, NAT is installed. If
   there is more than one exit point it is of great importance that
   each NAT has the same translation table.

                                   \ | /
                                 +---------------+
                                 |Regional Router|
                                 +---------------+
                               WAN |           | WAN
                                   |           |
               Stub A .............|....   ....|............ Stub B
                                   |           |
                 {s=198.76.29.7,^  |           |  v{s=198.76.29.7,
                  d=198.76.28.4}^  |           |  v d=198.76.28.4}
                   +-----------------+       +-----------------+
                   |Stub Router w/NAT|       |Stub Router w/NAT|
                   +-----------------+       +-----------------+
                         |                         |
                         |  LAN               LAN  |
                   -------------             -------------
                             |                 |
           {s=10.33.96.5, ^  |                 |  v{s=198.76.29.7,
            d=198.76.28.4}^ +--+             +--+ v d=10.81.13.22}
                            |--|             |--|
                           /____\           /____\
                         10.33.96.5       10.81.13.22

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                     Figure 2: Basic NAT Operation

   For instance, in the example of figure 2, both stubs A and B
   internally use class A address 10.0.0.0. Stub A's NAT is
   assigned the class C address 198.76.29.0, and Stub B's NAT is
   assigned the class C address 198.76.28.0. The class C addresses
   are globally unique no other NAT boxes can use them.

   When stub A host 10.33.96.5 wishes to send a packet to stub B host
   10.81.13.22, it uses the globally unique address 198.76.28.4 as
   destination, and sends the packet to it's primary router. The stub
   router has a static route for net 198.76.0.0 so the packet is
   forwarded to the WAN-link. However, NAT translates the source
   address 10.33.96.5 of the IP header to the globally unique
   198.76.29.7 before the packet is forwarded. Likewise, IP packets
   on the return path go through similar address translations.

   Notice that this requires no changes to hosts or routers. For
   instance, as far as the stub A host is concerned, 198.76.28.4 is
   the address used by the host in stub B. The address translations
   are transparent to end hosts. Of course, this is just a simple 
   example. There are numerous issues to be explored.

2.2. Overview of NAPT

   Say, an organization has a private IP network and a WAN link to a
   service provider. The private network's stub router is assigned
   a globally valid address on the WAN link and the remaining nodes 
   in the organization have IP addresses that have only local
   significance. In such a case, nodes on the private network could 
   be allowed simultaneous access to external network, using the 
   single registered IP address with the aid of NAPT. NAPT would 
   allow mapping of tuples of the type (local IP addresses, local 
   TU port number) to tuples of the type (registered IP address, 
   assigned TU port number).

   This model fits the requirements of most Small Office Home Office 
   (SOHO) groups to access external network using a single service 
   provider assigned IP address. This model could be extended to 
   allow inbound access by statically mapping a local node per each 
   service TU port of the registered IP address.

   In the example of figure 3 below, stub A internally uses class A 
   address 10.0.0.0. The stub router's WAN interface is assigned an 
   IP address 138.76.28.4 by the service provider.

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                                   \ | /
                                 +-----------------------+
                                 |Service Provider Router|
                                 +-----------------------+
                               WAN |
                                   |
               Stub A .............|....
                                   |
       ^{s=138.76.28.4,sport=1024, |  v{s=138.76.29.7, sport = 23,
       ^ d=138.76.29.7,dport=23}   |  v d=138.76.28.4, dport = 1024}
                       +------------------+
                       |Stub Router w/NAPT|
                       +------------------+
                         |
                         |  LAN
   --------------------------------------------
      |        ^{s=10.0.0.10,sport=3017, |  v{s=138.76.29.7, sport=23,
      |        ^ d=138.76.29.7,dport=23} |  v d=10.0.0.10, dport=3017}
      |                                  |
     +--+      +--+                    +--+
     |--|      |--|                    |--|
    /____\    /____\                  /____\
   10.0.0.1  10.0.0.2   .....        10.0.0.10

    Figure 3: Network Address Port Translation (NAPT) Operation

   When stub A host 10.0.0.10 sends a telnet packet to host 
   138.76.29.7, it uses the globally unique address 138.76.29.7 as 
   destination, and sends the packet to it's primary router. The 
   stub router has a static route for net 138.76.0.0 so the packet 
   is forwarded to the WAN-link. However, NAPT translates the tuple 
   of source address 10.0.0.10 and source TCP port 3017 in the IP 
   and TCP headers into the globally unique 138.76.28.4 and a 
   uniquely assigned TCP port, say 1024, before the packet is 
   forwarded. Packets on the return path go through similar address 
   and TCP port translations for the target IP address and target 
   TCP port. Once again, notice that this requires no changes to 
   hosts or routers.  The translation is completely transparent.

   In this setup, only TCP/UDP sessions are allowed and must originate 
   from the local network. However, there are services such as DNS 
   that demand inbound access. There may be other services for which 
   an organization wishes to allow inbound session access.  It is 
   possible to statically configure a TU port service on the stub 
   router to be directed to a specific node in the private network. 

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   In addition to TCP/UDP sessions, ICMP messages, with the exception 
   of REDIRECT message type may also be monitored by NAPT router.
   ICMP query type packets are translated similar to that of TCP/UDP 
   packets, in that the identifier field in ICMP message header will 
   be uniquely mapped to a query identifier of the registered IP 
   address.  The identifier field in ICMP query messages is set by 
   Query sender and returned unchanged in response message from the 
   Query responder.  So, the tuple of (Local IP address, local ICMP 
   query identifier) is mapped to a tuple of (registered IP address, 
   assigned ICMP query Identifier) by the NAPT router to uniquely 
   identify ICMP queries of all types from any of the local hosts. 
   Modifications to ICMP error messages are discussed in a later 
   section, as that involves modifications to ICMP payload as well 
   as the IP and ICMP headers.

   In NAPT setup, where the registered IP address is the same as the IP 
   address of the stub router WAN interface, the router has to be sure
   to make distinction between TCP, UDP or ICMP query sessions 
   originated from itself versus those originated from the nodes on 
   local network. All inbound sessions (including TCP, UDP and ICMP 
   query sessions) are assumed to be directed to the NAT router as 
   the end node, unless the target service port is statically mapped to 
   a different node in the local network.

   Sessions other than TCP, UDP and ICMP query type are simply not 
   permitted from local nodes, serviced by a NAPT router.

3.0. Translation phases of a session.

   The translation phases with traditional NAT are same as described in
   [REF1]. The following sub-sections identify items that are specific 
   to traditional NAT. 

3.1. Address binding:

   With Basic NAT, a private address is bound to an external address,
   when the first outgoing session is initiated from the private host. 
   Subsequent to that, all other outgoing sessions originating 
   from the same private address will use the same address binding for 
   packet translation. 

   In the case of NAPT, where many private addresses are mapped to a 
   single globally unique address, the binding would be from the 
   tuple of (private address, private TU port) to the tuple of 
   (assigned address, assigned TU port). As with Basic NAT, this 
   binding is determined when the first outgoing session is initiated 
   by the tuple of (private address, private TU port) on the private 

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   host. While not a common practice, it is possible to have an 
   application on private host establish multiple simultaneous 
   sessions originating from the same tuple of (private address, 
   private TU port). In such a case, a single binding for the tuple 
   of (private address, private TU port) may be used for translation 
   of packets pertaining to all sessions originating from the same 
   tuple on a host.

3.2. Address lookup and translation:

   After an address binding or (address, TU port) tuple binding in 
   case of NAPT is established, a soft state may be maintained for 
   each of the connections using the binding. Packets belonging to 
   the same session will be subject to session lookup for translation 
   purposes. The exact nature of translation is discussed in the
   follow-on section.

3.3. Address unbinding:

   When the last session based on an address or (address, TU port) 
   tuple binding is terminated,  the binding itself may be terminated.

4.0. Packet Translations

   Packets pertaining to NAT managed sessions undergo translation 
   in either direction. Individual packet translation issues  are 
   covered in detail in the following sub-sections.

4.1. IP, TCP, UDP and ICMP Header Manipulations

   In Basic NAT model, the IP header of every packet must be 
   modified. This modification includes IP address (source IP 
   address for outbound packets and destination IP address for 
   inbound packets) and the IP checksum. 

   For TCP/UDP sessions, modifications must include update of 
   checksum in the TCP/UDP headers. This is because TCP/UDP 
   checksum also covers a pseudo header which contains the source 
   and destination IP addresses. As an exception, UDP headers 
   with 0 checksum should not be modified.  As for ICMP Query
   packets, no further changes in ICMP header are required as
   the checksum in ICMP header does not cover IP addresses.
   
   In NAPT model, modifications to IP header are similar to that of
   Basic NAT. For TCP/UDP sessions, modifications must be extended
   to include translation of TU port (source TU port for outbound 

Srisuresh & Egevang                                             [Page 8]
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   packets and destination TU port for inbound packets) in the 
   TCP/UDP header. ICMP header in ICMP Query packets must  also
   be modified to replace the query ID and ICMP header checksum.
   Private host query ID must be translated into assigned ID on 
   the outbound and the exact reverse on the inbound. ICMP header
   checksum must be corrected to account for Query ID translation.

4.2. Checksum Adjustment

   NAT modifications are per packet based and can be very compute 
   intensive, as they involve one or more checksum modifications
   in addition to simple field translations. Luckily, we have
   an algorithm below, which makes checksum adjustment to IP, TCP,
   UDP and ICMP headers very simple and efficient. Since all these
   headers use a one's complement sum, it is sufficient to calculate
   the arithmetic difference between the before-translation and after-
   translation addresses and add this to the checksum. The algorithm 
   below is applicable only for even offsets (i.e., optr below must 
   be at an even offset from start of header) and even lengths 
   (i.e., olen and nlen below must be even). Sample code (in C) for 
   this is as follows. 

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   void checksumadjust(unsigned char *chksum, unsigned char *optr,
   int olen, unsigned char *nptr, int nlen)
   /* assuming: unsigned char is 8 bits, long is 32 bits.
     - chksum points to the chksum in the packet
     - optr points to the old data in the packet
     - nptr points to the new data in the packet
   */
   {
     long x, old, new;
     x=chksum[0]*256+chksum[1];
     x=~x & 0xFFFF;
     while (olen) 
     {
         old=optr[0]*256+optr[1]; optr+=2;
         x-=old & 0xffff;
         if (x<=0) { x--; x&=0xffff; }
         olen-=2;
     }
     while (nlen) 
     {
         new=nptr[0]*256+nptr[1]; nptr+=2;
         x+=new & 0xffff;
         if (x & 0x10000) { x++; x&=0xffff; }
         nlen-=2;
     }
     x=~x & 0xFFFF;
     chksum[0]=x/256; chksum[1]=x & 0xff;
   }

4.3. ICMP error packet modifications

   Changes to ICMP error message will include changes to IP and 
   ICMP headers on the outer layer as well as changes to headers
   of the packet embedded within the ICMP-error message payload. 

   In order for NAT to be transparent to end-host, the IP address
   of the IP header embedded within the payload of ICMP-Error 
   message must be modified, the checksum field of the embedded
   IP header must be modified, and lastly, the ICMP header 
   checksum must also be modified to reflect changes to payload. 

   In a NAPT setup, if the IP message embedded within ICMP happens 
   to be a TCP, UDP or ICMP Query packet, you will also need to 
   modify the appropriate TU port number within the TCP/UDP header 
   or the Query Identifier field in the ICMP Query header.

   Lastly, the IP header of the ICMP packet must also be modified. 

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4.4. FTP support

   As noted in [REF1], one of the most popular applications,
   "FTP" would require an ALG to monitor the control session 
   payload to determine the ensuing data session parameters. 
   FTP ALG is an integral part of most NAT implementations. 

   The FTP ALG would require a special table to correct the TCP 
   sequence and acknowledge numbers with source port FTP or 
   destination port FTP. The table entries should have source
   address, destination address, source port, destination
   port, delta for sequence numbers and a timestamp. New entries are 
   created only when FTP PORT commands or PASV responses are seen. The 
   sequence number delta may be increased or decreased for every FTP 
   PORT command or PASV response. Sequence numbers are incremented 
   on the outbound and acknowledge numbers are decremented on the 
   inbound by this delta. 

   FTP payload translations are limited to private addresses and 
   their assigned external addresses (encoded as individual octets
   in ASCII) for Basic NAT. For NAPT setup, however, the translations 
   must be extended to include the TCP port octets (in ASCII) 
   following the address octets.

4.5 DNS support

   Considering that sessions in a traditional NAT are predominantly 
   outbound from a private domain, DNS ALG may be obviated from use in
   conjunction with traditional NAT as follows. DNS server(s) internal 
   to the private domain maintain mapping of names to IP addresses for 
   internal hosts and possibly some external hosts. External DNS 
   servers maintain name mapping for external hosts alone and not for 
   any of the internal hosts. If the private network does not have an 
   internal DNS server, all DNS requests may be directed to external 
   DNS server to find address mapping for the external hosts.

4.6. IP option handling
 
   An IP datagram with any of the IP options Record Route, Strict
   Source Route or Loose Source Route would involve recording or
   using IP addresses of intermediate routers. A NAT intermediate
   router may choose not to support these options or leave
   the addresses untranslated while processing the options. The
   result of leaving the addresses untranslated would be that
   private addresses along the source route are exposed end to
   end. This should not jeopardize the traversal path of the
   packet, per se, as each router is supposed to look at the

Srisuresh & Egevang                                            [Page 11]
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   next hop router only.
                                

5. Miscellaneous issues

5.1. Partitioning of Local and Global Addresses

   For NAT to operate as described in this draft, it is necessary 
   to partition the IP address space into two parts - the private 
   addresses used internal to stub domain, and the globally 
   unique addresses.  Any given address must either be a private 
   address or a global address. There is no overlap.

   The problem with overlap is the following. Say a host in stub A
   wished to send packets to a host in stub B, but the global 
   addresses of stub B overlapped the private addressees of stub A. 
   In this case, the routers in stub A would not be able to 
   distinguish the global address of stub B from its own private 
   addresses.

5.2. Private address space recommendation

   The RFC listed in ref[1] has recommendations on address space 
   allocation for private networks. Internet Assigned Numbers 
   Authority (IANA) has three blocks of IP address space, namely 
   10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16 for private 
   internets. In pre-CIDR notation, the first block is nothing but 
   a single class A network number, while the second block is a set 
   of 16 contiguous class B networks, and the third block is a set of 
   256 contiguous class C networks.

   An organization that decides to use IP addresses in the address 
   space defined above can do so without any coordination with IANA 
   or an Internet registry. The address space can thus be used 
   privately by many independent organizations at the same time, 
   with NAT operation enabled on their border routers.

5.3. Routing Across NAT

   The router running NAT should not advertise the private networks to
   the backbone. Only the networks with global addresses may be known
   outside the stub. However, global information that NAT receives from
   the stub border router can be advertised in the stub the usual way.

   Typically, the NAT stub router will have a static route configured
   to forward all external traffic to service provider router over WAN 
   link, and the service provider router will have a static route 
   configured to forward NAT packets (i.e., those whose destination 

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   IP address fall within the range of NAT managed global address list) 
   to NAT router over WAN link.

5.4. Switch-over from Basic NAT to NAPT

   In Basic NAT setup, when private network nodes outnumber global 
   addresses available for mapping (say, a class B private network 
   mapped to a class C global address block), external network 
   access to some of the local nodes is abruptly cut off after the 
   last global address from the address list is used up. This is 
   very inconvenient and constraining. Such an incident can be 
   safely avoided by optionally allowing the Basic NAT router to 
   switch over to NAPT setup for the last global address in the 
   address list.  Doing this will ensure that hosts on private 
   network will have continued, uninterrupted access to the 
   external nodes and services for most applications. Note, 
   however, it could be confusing if some of the applications that
   used to work with Basic NAT suddenly break due to the 
   switch-over to NAPT.

6.0. NAT limitations

   [REF1] covers the limitations of all flavors of NAT, broadly 
   speaking. The following sub-sections identify limitations 
   specific to traditional NAT.

6.1. Privacy and Security

   Traditional NAT can be viewed as providing a privacy mechanism 
   as sessions are uni-directional from private hosts and
   the actual addresses of the private hosts are not visible to 
   external hosts. 

   The same characteristic that enhances privacy potentially makes
   debugging problems (including security violations) more difficult. 
   If a host in private network is abusing the Internet in some way 
   (such as trying to attack another machine or even sending large 
   amounts of spam) it is more difficult to track the actual source 
   of trouble because the IP address of the host is hidden in a 
   NAT router.

6.2. ARP responses to NAT mapped global addresses on a LAN interface

   NAT must be enabled only on border routers of a stub domain. The 
   examples provided in the document to illustrate Basic NAT and 
   NAPT have maintained a WAN link for connection to external router 
   (i.e., service provider router) from NAT router. However, if the 

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   WAN link were to be replaced by a LAN connection and if part or 
   all of the global address space used for NAT mapping belongs to 
   the same IP subnet as the LAN segment, the NAT router would be 
   expected to provide ARP support for the address range that belongs 
   to the same subnet.  Responding to ARP requests for the NAT 
   mapped global addresses with its own MAC address is a must in 
   such a situation with Basic NAT setup. If the NAT router did 
   not respond to these requests, there is no other node in the 
   network that has ownership to these addresses and hence will
   go unresponded. 

   This scenario is unlikely with NAPT setup except when the single 
   address used in NAPT mapping is not the interface address of the 
   NAT router (as in the case of a switch-over from Basic NAT to NAPT 
   explained in 5.4 above, for example).

   Using an address range from a directly connected subnet for NAT 
   address mapping would obviate static route configuration on the 
   service provider router.

   It is the opinion of the authors that a LAN link to a service 
   provider router is not very common. However, vendors may be 
   interested to optionally support proxy ARP just in case.

6.3. Translation of outbound TCP/UDP fragmented packets in NAPT setup

   Translation of outbound TCP/UDP fragments (i.e., those originating
   from private hosts) in NAPT setup are doomed to fail. The reason is 
   as follows. Only the first fragment contains the TCP/UDP header that 
   would be necessary to associate the packet to a session for 
   translation purposes. Subsequent fragments do not contain TCP/UDP 
   port information, but simply carry the same fragmentation identifier 
   specified in the first fragment. Say, two private hosts originated
   fragmented TCP/UDP packets to the same destination host.  And, they
   happened to use the same fragmentation identifier. When the
   target host receives the two unrelated datagrams, carrying same 
   fragmentation id, and from the same assigned host address, it 
   is unable to determine which of the two sessions the datagrams 
   belong to. Consequently, both sessions will be corrupted.

7.0. Current Implementations

   Many commercial implementations are available in the industry that
   adhere to the NAT description provided in this document. Linux
   public domain software contains NAT under the name of "IP 
   masquerade". FreeBSD public domain software has NAPT implementation
   running as a daemon. Note however that Linux source is covered 

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   under the GNU license and  FreeBSD software is covered under the 
   UC Berkeley license.

   Both Linux and FreeBSD software are free, so you can buy CD-ROMs 
   for these for little more than the cost of distribution. They are
   also available on-line from a lot of FTP sites with the latest 
   patches.
 

8.0. Security Considerations

   The security considerations described in [REF1] for all variations
   of NATs are applicable to traditional NAT.

REFERENCES

   [1] P. Srisuresh, M. Holdrege, "IP Network Address Translator (NAT)
       Terminology and Considerations", RFC 2663

   [2] Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, B., Karrenberg, D., G. de Groot, and, 
       Lear, E.  "Address Allocation for Private Internets", RFC 1918 

   [3] J. Reynolds and J. Postel, "Assigned Numbers", RFC 1700

   [4] R. Braden, "Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Communication 
       Layers", RFC 1122

   [5] R. Braden, "Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application   
       and Support", RFC 1123

   [6] F. Baker, "Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers",  RFC 1812 

   [7] J. Postel, J. Reynolds, "FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP)",  
       RFC 959

   [8] "TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL (TCP) SPECIFICATION",  RFC 793

   [9] J. Postel, "INTERNET CONTROL MESSAGE (ICMP) SPECIFICATION",  
       RFC 792

   [10] J. Postel, "User Datagram Protocol (UDP)",  RFC 768

   [11] J. Mogul, J. Postel, "Internet Standard Subnetting Procedure",  
        RFC 950

   [12] Brian carpenter, Jon Crowcroft, Yakov Rekhter, "IPv4 Address
        Behaviour Today", RFC 2101

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Authors' Addresses

   Pyda Srisuresh
   Campio Communications
   630 Alder Drive
   Milpitas, CA 95035
   U.S.A.

   Voice: (408) 519-3849
   EMail: srisuresh@yahoo.com

   Kjeld Borch Egevang
   Intel Denmark ApS

   Voice: +45 44886556
   Fax:   +45 44886051
   EMail: kjeld.egevang@intel.com
   http:  //www.freeyellow.com/members/kbe

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