Patent ID: 7624195

Claim:
A method of distributing network address translation (NAT) processing within a private network comprising: at a gateway device, receiving an IP address request from an intermediary router; at the gateway device, assigning a first IP address to the intermediary router; at the gateway device, assigning a second IP address to the intermediary router; from the gateway device, notifying the intermediary router of an outside IP address and a port range associated with devices on the intermediary router's network segment, wherein the outside IP address and the port range belong to an outside address pool to be utilized by the intermediary router for translating IP traffic that is being sent between a first device that is in the intermediary router's network segment and a second device that is outside the private network, and wherein the port range is apportioned from the outside address pool to the intermediary router so as to distinguish the intermediary router from other intermediary routers of the private network; routing outside IP traffic from the gateway device to the intermediary router's second IP address when the outside IP traffic includes the outside IP address and the port range as a destination so that such routing to the intermediary router's second address is indicative to the intermediary router that such intermediary router is to perform NAT on the routed outside IP traffic based on the outside IP address and the port range prior to routing such outside IP traffic to a final destination associated with said outside IP traffic; and routing inside IP traffic from the gateway device to the intermediary router's first IP address so that such routing to the intermediary router's first IP address is indicative to the intermediary router that such intermediary router is not to perform NAT on the routed inside IP traffic based on the outside IP address and the port range prior to routing such inside IP traffic to a final destination associated with said inside IP traffic.