Editing IP fragmentation (section)

==Process==
{{IETF RFC|791}} describes the procedure for IP fragmentation, and transmission and reassembly of IP packets.<ref name=RFC791>{{citation |rfc=791 |title=Internet Protocol |publisher=Information Sciences Institute |date=September 1981}}</ref> RFC 815 describes a simplified reassembly algorithm.<ref name=RFC815>{{citation |rfc=815 |title=IP Datagram Reassembly Algorithms |author=David D. Clark |date=July 1982}}</ref> The ''Identification'' field along with the ''foreign'' and ''local internet address'' and the ''protocol ID'', and ''Fragment'' offset field along with ''Don't Fragment'' and ''More Fragments'' flags in the [[IP header]] are used for fragmentation and reassembly of IP packets.<ref name=RFC791/>{{rp|24}}<ref name=RFC815/>{{rp|9}}

If a receiving host receives a fragmented IP packet, it has to reassemble the packet and pass it to the higher protocol layer. Reassembly is intended to happen in the receiving host but in practice, it may be done by an intermediate router, for example, [[network address translation]] (NAT) ''may'' need to reassemble fragments in order to translate data streams.<ref>{{citation |rfc=2993 |title=Architectural Implications of NAT |date=November 2000 |last1=Hain |first1=Tony L. }}</ref>