genodelabs/genode — Issue #114: Virtual NAT
Author: nfeske
Created: 2012-02-14 11:23:26+00:00
State: open
Labels: feature

For sharing one physical network interface among multiple applications, Genode comes with a component called nic_bridge, which implements proxy ARP. Through this component, each application receives a distinct (virtual) network interface that is visible to the real network. I.e., each application requests an IP address via a DHCP request at the local network. An alternative approach would be a component that implements NAT on Genode's NIC session interface. This way, the whole Genode system would use only one IP address visible to the local network. (by stacking multiple nat and nic_bridge components together, we could even form complex virtual networks inside a single Genode system)

The implementation of the virtual NAT could follow the lines of the existing nic_bridge component. For parsing network packets, there are already some handy utilities available (at os/include/net/).