Bridge an IPv6 Network with IPv4 using NAT 64

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As your business grows, the number of employees increase, you may also spread your wings to other cities and countries. But, are you aware that your internet footprint will also grow? You will need robust technologies to manage your business and that also is dependent on the IPv4 addresses you already have (IPv6 Network with IPv4 using NAT 64).

To counter the IPv4 exhaustion, Subnetting was introduced in 1984. Later on, in 1995 the introduction of IPv6 addresses was done to make sure there were enough IPs for the internet to work all around the world (IPv6 Network with IPv4 using NAT 64). 

With your business growing, you will need more devices with IP addresses to communicate within your organization as well as with your customers. Since your IPv4s are not enough you would make a mindful and right decision to purchase the IP block of IPv6 (IPv6 Network with IPv4 using NAT 64). 

However, many businesses do not take a mindful decision like this and are stuck with IPv4. This poses a major problem in communication between your IPv6 addresses and your clients or customers IPv4 addresses since IPv6 has 128 bits address space and IPv4 has 32-bit address space. This means your IPv6 host will be unable to communicate with your customer’s IPv4 address, and then yes you will be lost without translation!!! So, how can you manage communication between both IPv4 and IPv6? Looking at these drawbacks, NAT 64 was introduced for an effective IPv4 to IPv6 transition (IPv6 Network with IPv4 using NAT 64).

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What is Nat 64

NAT 64 is a transition mechanism that allows host communication between IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. NAT stands for Network Address Translation. One can initiate a link between IPv6 network and IPv4 using NAT 64

How does a NAT 64 work? 

NAT 64 is designed to create communication when an IPv6 host is trying to connect with an IPv4 host. 

Advantages of NAT 64:

  1. Translation from WAN to LAN addresses

  2. Gradual Transition and migration from IPv6 to IPv4 addresses

  3. Communication between IPv6 and IPv4 hosts

  4. It allows businesses to continue communication with their IPv6 only clients and also IPv4 only clients, thus maintaining business continuity. 

  5. It provides a seamless internet experience to IPv4 users and also IPv6 only users using IPv4 internet services. 

  6. It also perfectly helps in communication in organizations that have both IPv4 network and IPv6 network.

  7. There is no need to change the network infrastructure of an organization to place NAT 64 in place. 

DNS64:

For NAT64 to work properly, it needs the DNS64 server, as NAT is provided DNS extensions from IPv6 clients to IPv4 servers. Therefore, to allow IPv6-only host servers to access IPv4-only servers, NAT64 and DNS64 have to be used together. 

Types of NAT 64:

There are two types of NAT 64 methods: 

  1. Stateless NAT 64: This translation method maps one IPv6 address to one IPv4 address and vice versa. It uses Manual or Domain Host Configuration Protocol Version 6 (DHCPv6). This method initiates communication by IPv6 network or IPv4 network. It cannot modify or create bindings when translations are performed. 

  1. Stateful NAT 64: This translation method is used for translating one IPv6 to many IPv4 addresses and vice versa. It can perform autoconfiguration and can modify bindings during translations. Static mapping can be used to initiate communication by IPv6 network or IPv4 network. End-End address transparency is not possible and is not scalable. 

Which is better, Stateless, or Stateful?

According to Network Administrators at Alpha InfoLab, Stateless NAT64 is considered to be better than Stateful NAT64 for the following reasons:
  1. Stateless protocol simplifies the server design, whereas Stateful protocol is complex and heavy for the server design. 

  2. During server crashes, Stateless Protocols work better since there is no need to restore to any state as a state does not exist. It will simply restart the server after the crash. 

Knowing and understanding these technicalities are difficult for a layman and hence, Network Administrators from Alpha InfoLab is the right lot of people to guide your organization on the best type of translation as they have immense knowledge and expertise. For more information on NAT64 then speak to our experts.

If you want to buy/ sell IPv4s or want to do bidding For IPv4, then head to the best Exchange Platform for IPv4.

Why is it important to adopt and enforce IPv6 only policy in your organization?

Author ipvadblog

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