Network Address Translation (NAT) for IPv4 was developed primarily to curb overcrowding of the Internet due to dwindling global IP addresses; however, NAT provides several other benefits. NAT can be used to mask the internal IP addresses of an Intranet - IPv6, the emerging standard for Internet addressing, provides three times the number of bits for IP addressing. While IPv6 does not need NAT for connectivity, other NAT features such as address hiding are valuable. There is currently no NAT implementation for IPv6. The focus of this research was the design and development of a NAT implementation for IPv6. This implementation will be used within a multilevel testbed. In addition, the NAT implementation developed here can facilitate the Department of Defense (DoD) transition to IPv6 planned for 2008 by providing services currently not available for IPv6. A working implementation of NAT for IPv6 within the Linux kernel has been produced The NAT development created here has been tested for Support of the protocols of TCP, UDP and ICMP for IPv6.
Network Address Translation (NAT) for IPv4 was developed primarily to curb overcrowding of the Internet due to dwindling global IP addresses; however, NAT provides several other benefits.
