Patent ID: 7136385

Claim:
A method for performing network address translations for a session in a network, the network including at least one local network domain, the local network domain including at least one computer system, each of the at least one computer system having a local address and being associated with a global address, the session exchanging a plurality of packets that travel to and from a second at least one computer system within the network, each of the second at least one computer system being connected to the network outside of the local network domain, each of the plurality of packets including source information and destination information, the method comprising the steps of: searching a global address table for a match of a key for each of the plurality of packets to determine a direction of travel for each of the plurality of packets, the key being provided using a portion of the destination information, the global address table including at least one entry, each of the at least one entry corresponding to the global address for a first corresponding computer system; and asymmetrically translating the source information and destination information for each of the plurality of packets using an address translation table or session table based on a direction the packet is traveling, the address translation table including at least one entry, each of the at least one entry corresponding to the local address for a first at least one computer system within the at least one local network domain of the network, the session table including at least one session table entry, each of the at least one session table entry corresponding to a specific connection between two computer systems, the asymmetric translating including providing a symmetric key for indexing a session table, the symmetric key being symmetric for bi-directional traffic.