NAT64 allows IPv6-only devices to communicate with IPv4-only servers.
The problem:
- Many mobile networks are IPv6-only internally
- Much of the internet is still IPv4
How it works:
IPv6 client wants to reach IPv4 server
DNS64 synthesizes an IPv6 address for the IPv4 server
Client sends traffic to this synthesized address
NAT64 gateway translates to IPv4
The synthesized address:
- Uses prefix 64:ff9b::/96
- IPv4 address embedded in last bits
NAT64 is a transition mechanism helping IPv6 adoption.