1. CS 5565 Network Architecture and Protocols
Godmar Back

2. Announcements Required Reading: DCCP by Koehler et al, SIGCOMM 2006
CS 5565 Spring 2012

3. Network Address Translation
TCP Hole Punching & Simultaneous Open

4. NAT: Network Address Translation
rest of
Internet
local network
(e.g., home network)
10.0.0/24
All datagrams leaving local
network have same single source NAT IP address: ,
different source port numbers
Datagrams with source or
destination in this network
have /24 address for
source, destination (as usual)
CS 5565 Spring 2012

5. NAT: Network Address Translation
Motivation: local network uses just one IP address as far as outside word is concerned:
no need to be allocated range of addresses from ISP: - just one IP address is used for all devices
can change addresses of devices in local network without notifying outside world
can change ISP without changing addresses of devices in local network
devices inside local net not explicitly addressable, visible by outside world (a huge security plus).
CS 5565 Spring 2012

6. NAT: Network Address Translation
Implementation: NAT router must:
outgoing datagrams: replace (source IP address, port #) of every outgoing datagram to (NAT IP address, new port #)
. . . remote clients/servers will respond using (NAT IP address, new port #) as destination addr.
remember (in NAT translation table) every (source IP address, port #) to (NAT IP address, new port #) translation pair
incoming datagrams: replace (NAT IP address, new port #) in dest fields of every incoming datagram with corresponding (source IP address, port #) stored in NAT table
CS 5565 Spring 2012

7. NAT: Network Address Translation
NAT translation table
WAN side addr LAN side addr
1: host
sends datagram to
, 80
2: NAT router
changes datagram
source addr from
, 3345 to
, 5001,
updates table
, , 3345
…… ……
S: , 3345
D: , 80 1
S: , 80
D: , 3345 4
S: , 5001
D: , 80 2
S: , 80
D: , 5001 3
4: NAT router
changes datagram
dest addr from , to , 3345
3: Reply arrives
dest. address:
, 5001
CS 5565 Spring 2012

8. Managing NAT table
NAT Gateway (usually) adds entries for datagrams traveling private to public automatically
Allows UDP/TCP clients to transparently sendto/connect to outside servers
Removal of entries
UDP: timeout due to inactivity
TCP: timeout + TCP connection teardown
Other direction requires configuration so NAT Gateway knows where to forward incoming datagram even if no private host previously punched a hole by initiating UDP traffic/TCP connection
CS 5565 Spring 2012

9. NAT Disadvantages 16-bit port-number field: NAT is controversial:
Only 60,000 simultaneous connections with a single LAN-side address!
NAT is controversial:
routers should only process up to layer 3
violates end-to-end argument
NAT possibility must be taken into account by app designers, eg, P2P applications
address shortage should instead be solved by IPv6
really annoying if you time out on rlogin.cs.vt.edu
CS 5565 Spring 2012

10. NAT Challenges
Considering that most Internet hosts are behind NAT these days – how should applications be written to deal with that?
No problem as long as server has public IP and client knows where to connect (HTTP, XMPP, SMTP, POP)
What about P2P applications?
Could relay through server, but that would defeat purpose of P2P
Instead, a technique called “hole punching” is widely used (e.g., in Skype)
Discussed in [Ford/Srisuresh/Kegel 2005]
UDP hole punching is widely used, but TCP hole punching is possible as well
CS 5565 Spring 2012

11. NAT Relaying All traffic goes through S
Source: [Ford/Srisuresh/Kegel 2005]
CS 5565 Spring 2012

12. UDP Hole Punching
Rendezvous server only directs punches, traffic goes P2P
Details in [Ford/Srisuresh/Kegel 2005]
CS 5565 Spring 2012

13. Aside: TCP Hole Punching
External server S records & provides private & public IP
both behind-NAT hosts must punch holes with outgoing SYN – allows TCP connection
CS 5565 Spring 2012

14. Simultaneous Open (cont’d)
Vint Cerf, 1987:
Not invented for hole punching in NAT – coincidental use
Distributed systems with symmetric processes that automatically seek to link to each other (no master/slave relationship) would use the simul-OPEN style. It was designed into TCP for that purpose; I do not know, however, whether any actual applications have made use of this feature.
CS 5565 Spring 2012

15. Simultaneous Open (a) TCP connection establishment in the normal case.
(b) Call collision – one connection is established (“client-client” connection)
CS 5565 Spring 2012

16. TCP Connection FSM
The heavy solid line is the normal path for a client.
The heavy dashed line is the normal path for a server.
The light lines are unusual events.
Each transition is labeled by the event causing it and the action resulting from it, separated by a slash.
CS 5565 Spring 2012

17. TCP Hole Punching
Must bind multiple sockets to same port (SO_REUSEADDR)
Manage to identify which scenario has occurred
Must handle case where both clients are behind the same NAT!
CS 5565 Spring 2012