Patent ID: 7752334

Claim:
A network address translator device configured to provide network address translation services in a communications network, the device comprising: a processor; a public network interface; an address selector module configured to be executed on the processor; a network access translation module configured to be executed on the processor; and a network address port translation module configured to be executed on the processor; the address selector module configured to receive an outgoing data packet from a host device, analyze the outgoing data packet to identify an attribute of the outgoing data packet indicative of whether the packet requires a dedicated IP address, and execute either the network access translation module if the packet requires a dedicated IP address or the network address port translation module if the packet does not require a dedicated IP address; the network access translation module configured to select a dedicated public IP address from a pool of public IP addresses and transmit the outgoing data packet via the public network interface using connection parameters based on the selected dedicated public IP address; and the network address port translation module configured to select a port and transmit the network packet via the public network interface using connection parameters based on a default public IP address and the port.