🛜NAT Rating

NAT Rating$M_N$

The NAT (Network Address Translation) type plays a crucial role in determining the quality and stability of connections. As such, we have established a differentiated rewards system based on the type of NAT to encourage optimal connectivity configurations. Below is the classification of NAT types along with their corresponding reward coefficients:

Supplementary Information on NAT Types

NAT 1: Full Cone NAT This is the most permissive type of network environment. It imposes no restrictions on IP addresses or ports, allowing for unhindered network communications.

NAT 2: Address-Restricted Cone NAT Building on NAT1, NAT2 introduces address restrictions. While IP addresses are restricted under this type, ports remain unrestricted, offering a slightly more controlled environment than Full Cone NAT.

NAT 3: Port-Restricted Cone NAT NAT3 goes a step further by adding port restrictions in addition to IP restrictions. This means both IP addresses and ports are controlled, tightening network security and reducing some flexibility in connectivity.

NAT 4: Symmetric NAT Symmetric NAT incorporates the restrictive features of Port-Restricted Cone NAT. Every internal request to a specific external address may be assigned a new port number. Consequently, port numbers associated with different external addresses can vary, often hindering peer-to-peer (P2P) communications due to its strict nature.