Patent ID: 8675650

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a first network device configured to perform Network Address Translation (NAT), a first NAT transaction message which includes updated NAT information, the first NAT transaction message being generated by a second network device configured to perform NAT, the updated NAT information including information relating to updates or modifications to be performed on NAT information stored at a first NAT data structure, the first NAT data structure being managed by the first network device; and modifying by the first network device the NAT information stored at the first NAT data structure according to whether the second network device that generated the first NAT transaction message is authorized to modify the first NAT data structure, wherein modifying is performed using the updated NAT information from the first NAT transaction message to thereby achieve synchronization of the NAT information stored on the first and second network devices; wherein modifying by the first network device NAT information stored at the first NAT data structure according to whether the second network device that generated the first NAT transaction message is authorized to modify the first NAT data structure comprises preventing the NAT information stored at the first NAT data structure from being modified when the first network device determines that the second network device that generated the first NAT transaction message is not authorized to modify the first NAT data structure.