IPv6-to-IPv6 Network Prefix Translation (NPTv6) is a specification for

IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communication protocol, communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic ...

to achieve address-independence at the network edge, similar to

network address translation Network address translation (NAT) is a method of mapping an IP address space into another by modifying network address information in the IP header of packets while they are in transit across a traffic Router (computing), routing device. The te ...

(NAT) in

Internet Protocol version 4 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks ...

(IPv4). It has fewer architectural problems than traditional IPv4 NAT; for example, it is stateless and preserves the reachability attributed to the

end-to-end principle The end-to-end principle is a design principle in computer networking that requires application-specific features (such as reliability and security) to be implemented in the communicating end nodes of the network, instead of in the network itse ...

. However, the method may not translate embedded IPv6 addresses properly ( IPsec can be impacted), and

split-horizon DNS In computer networking, split-horizon DNS (also known as split-view DNS, split-brain DNS, or split DNS, or Mirage) is the facility of a Domain Name System (DNS) implementation to provide different sets of DNS information, usually selected by the ...

may be required for use in a business environment. NPTv6 Multihoming

NPTv6 differs from NAT66, which is stateful. With NPTv6, no port translation is required nor other manipulation of transport characteristics. Compared to NAT66, with NPTv6 there is end-to-end reachability along with 1:1 address mapping. This makes NPTv6 a better choice than NAT66.

References

External links

Cisco documentation on NPTv6

APNIC blog post from 2018 on NAT66

IPv6 Network address translation {{network-stub