Title
NAT usage in residential broadband networks
Abstract
Many Internet customers use network address translation (NAT) when connecting to the Internet. To understand the extend of NAT usage and its implications, we explore NAT usage in residential broadband networks based on observations from more than 20,000 DSL lines. We present a unique approach for detecting the presence of NAT and for estimating the number of hosts connected behind a NAT gateway using IP TTLs and HTTP user-agent strings. Furthermore, we study when each of the multiple hosts behind a single NAT gateway is active. This enables us to detect simultaneous use. In addition, we evaluate the accuracy of NAT analysis techniques when fewer information is available. We find that more than 90% of DSL lines use NAT gateways to connect to the Internet and that 10% of DSL lines have multiple hosts that are active at the same time. Overall, up to 52% of lines have multiple hosts. Our findings point out that using IPs as host identifiers may introduce substantial errors and therefore should be used with caution.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1007/978-3-642-19260-9_4
PAM
Keywords
Field
DocType
residential broadband network,fewer information,ip ttls,multiple host,single nat gateway,nat analysis technique,internet customer,nat usage,dsl line,simultaneous use,nat gateway,broadband network,user agent
Nat,NAT Port Mapping Protocol,Computer science,Digital subscriber line,Network address translation,Computer network,Default gateway,Broadband networks,NAT traversal,The Internet
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
6579
0302-9743
32
PageRank 
References 
Authors
1.58
8
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gregor Maier146234.16
Fabian Schneider248130.64
Anja Feldmann34935596.02