How does virtual CGNAT
(Carrier-Grade NAT) work?

Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) is a popular solution for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) looking to provide internet access to their customers and conserve public IP addresses. CGNAT works by allowing multiple customers to share a single, public IP address by assigning unique port numbers to each customer's device.


One trend that has emerged in recent years is the move towards virtualized CGNAT. Virtualized CGNAT is a version of CGNAT that is implemented using virtualization technology, rather than traditional hardware-based approaches. This allows CSPs to deploy CGNAT in a flexible and scalable manner, making it easier to manage and maintain.

Virtual CGNAT works in a similar way to traditional CGNAT, with the key difference being that it is deployed on a virtual machine rather than on dedicated hardware. This allows CSPs to easily integrate virtual CGNAT into their existing virtualized infrastructure and manage it using standard virtualization tools.

When a customer's device connects to the internet through virtual CGNAT, the virtual CGNAT translates private IP addresses to public IP addresses, and creates a mapping between them to enable sharing of a single public IP address among multiple customers.

• Flexibility: Virtualized CGNAT can be deployed in a variety of environments, including on-premises, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution. This flexibility allows CSPs to choose the deployment option that best meets their needs.
  
• Scalability: Virtualized CGNAT can be scaled up or down as needed, making it easier for CSPs to adjust to changes in demand.
  
• Cost-efficiency: Virtualized CGNAT can be more cost-efficient than traditional hardware-based approaches, as it does not require the purchase and maintenance of physical hardware.
  
• Improved performance: Virtualized CGNAT can offer improved performance compared to traditional hardware-based approaches, as it can take advantage of the processing power and resources of the underlying hardware.

Virtualized CGNAT allows CSPs to deploy CGNAT in a flexible and scalable manner, making it easier to manage and maintain while helping to provide internet access to their customers and conserve public IP addresses.

Before deploying a virtualized CGNAT, you should ask yourself several important questions like plan networking capacity, hardware and virtualized environment, and licensing. Because virtualized solutions are much more flexible and scalable, you don't need to overprovision the capacity of the solution, and buy exactly what you currently need.

Check our step by step guide "Your Introduction to Planning and Deploying CGNAT" to learn how to prepare and deploy virtualized CGNAT solutions in your network.

At NFWare, we have an award-winning purely virtual CGNAT solution that helps ISPs worldwide to overcome an IPv4 exhaustion challenge effectively. It is a software-based solution that runs on top of an x86 server, and can provide IPv4 and IPv6 addresses translation for more than a million subscribers simultaneously. Contact us to discover how our solution can assist your ISP in addressing the IPv4 address shortage, while embarking on your NFV journey.