CertiGuide to Security+  9  Chapter 3:  Infrastructure Security (Domain 3.0; 20%)       9  3.3  Security Topologies

Why Use NAT? 1 2 Pop Quiz 3.1

Tunneling is the process of encapsulating a protocol within packets carried by a lower-level network, to provide a virtual point-to-point connection. For example, many VPNs run over TCP/IP networks, embedding another TCP/IP network’s traffic, sometimes using a completely different host addressing scheme such as NAT, within the outer network’s packets.

In many cases, the complete packet traveling on the “virtual network” is placed into the data area of the physical network’s packets, just as with any other application. The lower layers of the outer network are not even aware that another network’s traffic is piggybacking over them.

Tunneling can provide an authenticated, encrypted, tamper-resistant channel of communication over the Internet, between two points, as we discussed in section 2.1 on Remote Access protocols and technologies.

Tunneling software takes care of encapsulating the packets for transmission, and then receiving and decoding them at the other end of the tunnel and placing them onto the local network as if they had originated there. It can exist at various network layers, such as OSI layers 2 and 3, or higher application layers.

Why Use NAT? 1 2 Pop Quiz 3.1