RFC 2766 (rfc2766) - Page 2 of 21

Network Address Translation - Protocol Translation (NAT-PT)

RFC 2766                         NAT-PT                    February 2000


Table of Contents

   1. Introduction..................................................  2
   2. Terminology...................................................  3
      2.1 Network Address Translation (NAT).........................  4
      2.2 NAT-PT flavors............................................  4
         2.2.1 Traditional-NAT-PT...................................  4
         2.2.2 Bi-directional-NAT-PT................................  5
      2.3 Protocol Translation (PT).................................  5
      2.4 Application Level Gateway (ALG)...........................  5
      2.5 Requirements..............................................  5
   3. Traditional-NAT-PT operation (V6 to V4).......................  6
      3.1 NAT-PT Outgoing Sessions..................................  6
      3.2 NAPT-PT Outgoing Sessions.................................  7
   4. Use of DNS-ALG for Address assignment.........................  8
      4.1 V4 Address Assignment for Incoming Connections (V4 to V6).  9
      4.2 V4 Address Assignment for Outgoing Connections (V6 to V4). 11
   5. Protocol Translation Details.................................. 12
      5.1 Translating IPv4 Headers to IPv6 Headers.................. 13
      5.2 Translating IPv6 Headers to IPv4 Headers.................. 13
      5.3 TCP/UDP/ICMP Checksum Update.............................. 13
   6. FTP Application Level Gateway (FTP-ALG) Support............... 14
      6.1 Payload modifications for V4 originated FTP sessions...... 15
      6.2 Payload modifications for V6 originated FTP sessions...... 16
      6.3 Header updates for FTP control packets.................... 16
   7. NAT-PT Limitations and Future Work............................ 17
      7.1 Topology Limitations...................................... 17
      7.2 Protocol Translation Limitations.......................... 17
      7.3 Impact of Address Translation............................. 18
      7.4 Lack of End-to-End Security............................... 18
      7.5 DNS Translation and DNSSEC................................ 18
   8. Applicability Statement....................................... 18
   9. Security Considerations....................................... 19
   10. References................................................... 19
   Authors' Addresses............................................... 20
   Full Copyright Statement......................................... 21

1. Introduction

   IPv6 is a new version of the IP protocol designed to modernize IPv4
   which was designed in the 1970s. IPv6 has a number of advantages over
   IPv4 that will allow for future Internet growth and will simplify IP
   configuration and administration. IPv6 has a larger address space
   than IPv4, an addressing model that promotes aggressive route
   aggregation and a powerful autoconfiguration mechanism.  In time, it
   is expected that Internet growth and a need for a plug-and-play
   solution will result in widespread adoption of IPv6.




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