Editing Network address translation (section)

== History ==
[[Internet Protocol]] version 4 (IPv4) uses 32-bit addresses, capable of uniquely addressing about 4.3 billion devices on the network. By 1992, it became evident that that would not be enough. The 1994 {{IETF RFC|1631}} describes NAT as a "short-term solution" to the two most compelling problems facing the Internet Protocol at that time: IP address depletion and scaling in routing. By 2004, NAT had become widespread.<ref name="huston" >{{cite journal |author=Geoff Huston |url=https://ipj.dreamhosters.com/wp-content/uploads/issues/2004/ipj07-3.pdf |title=Anatomy: A Look Inside Network Address Translators |journal=The Internet Protocol Journal |date=September 2004}}</ref>

The technique also became known as '''IP masquerading'''. which suggests a technique that hides an entire IP address space, usually consisting of private IP addresses, behind a single IP address in another, usually public address space. Because of the popularity of this technique to conserve IPv4 address space, the term ''NAT'' became virtually synonymous with IP masquerading.

In 1996, port-address translation (PAT) was introduced,<ref name=yeom>{{cite conference |author1=Heon Y. Yeom|author2=Jungsoo Ha|author3=Ilhwan Kim|title="IP Multiplexing by Transparent Port-Address Translator"|conference=USENIX LISA|year=1996|url=https://www.usenix.org/conference/lisa-96/ip-multiplexing-transparent-port-address-translator}}</ref> which expanded the translation of addresses to include port numbers.