An IP Shared Device Based on the Network Port Translation

Abstract

In this article we introduce a new design which names Network Port Translation (NPT) that can substitute the function of Network Address Translation (NAT) and get better performance in translation. The different concept between NPT and NAT is that NPT works in Layer 2 and NAT works in Layer 3. Because the design of NPT is based on ”Translation on Demand (ToD)” to the Service Port Number and do not execute any translation to the IP Address, the packets will forward directly and save a lot of processing time. NPT can improve the performance of translation significantly which includes translation latency, packet throughput and reduce the loading of the NPT device. At last, NPT can also support a high level network security environment which includes all internal and external networks by controlling the devices access from client to client.