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19 November 2021

NAT vs PAT | Difference between NAT and PAT

Before transferring a packet, Network address translation and port address translation protocols are used to map an unregistered private address of an internal network to a registered public address of an external network. The main difference is that NAT is used to map public IP addresses to private IP addresses in a one-to-one or many-to-one relationship. PAT is the type of NAT in which multiple private IP addresses are mapped into a single public IP address via ports.

What is NAT?

NAT stands for network address translation. It is a device to improve security by preventing an outside attacker from even discovering the local network. This is due to the fact that the local addressing scheme is not contiguous with the standard IP address space used globally.

What is PAT?

PAT stands for port address translation. PAT optimizes the use of IP address space by allocating one dedicated IP address to the organization and using IP address internally as needed. PAT is the NAT extension.

NAT vs PAT| Difference between NAT and PAT:

  • NAT stands for network address translation, while PAT stands for port address translation. 
  • NAT can be considred PATs superset. PAT is a form of dynamic NAT.
  • NAT uses an IP address in the process of translation whereases  PAT uses an IP address along with port numbers.
  • NAT translates the inside local addresses into inside global addresses similarity PAT translates the private unregistered IP addresses into public registered IP addresses but unlike NAT it uses a source of port numbers also, and multiple hosts can be assigned with the same IP having different port numbers.
  • NET uses an IPV4 address. PAT also uses an IPV4 address but with port numbers. 
  • NAT has 3 types: Static, dynamic NAT, and PAT/NAT overloading/IP masquerading. While PAT also has two types: static and overload PAT. 
The key difference between NAT and PAT:
  • PAT uses IP addresses along with port numbers,, while NAT uses IP addresses along with port numbers.
  • PAT is a form of dynamic NAT.
  • NAT translates the inside local addresses into inside global addresses similarly PAT translates the private unregistered IP addresses into public registered IP addresses. However unlike NAt, PAT also uses source port numbers, allowing multiple hosts to share a single IP address while using different port numbers. 
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