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5. Operational Considerations

Enterprises using private address space need to consider the following operational issues:

5.1 Routing Configuration​

  • Internal routers should be configured to forward packets with private addresses within the enterprise.
  • Border routers must be configured to filter out any packets containing private addresses as source or destination addresses, preventing them from leaking to the public Internet.
  • Internet Service Provider routers should be configured to reject routing information about private networks.

5.2 DNS Configuration​

  • If an enterprise uses both private and public addresses, two DNS servers need to be maintained:
    • One facing the public Internet, containing only publicly reachable addresses
    • One facing the internal network, containing complete address information (including private addresses)

5.3 Network Address Translation​

  • Enterprises requiring private address hosts to access the public Internet must deploy NAT or application layer gateways.
  • NAT devices need to maintain address mapping tables and may become performance bottlenecks.
  • Some protocols and applications may be incompatible with NAT.

5.4 Future Connectivity Planning​

  • Enterprises should plan for a sufficiently large private address space to meet future growth needs.
  • If future connection to the Internet is possible, resources and time required for renumbering should be reserved.
  • Using larger address blocks (such as 10.0.0.0/8) can reduce the need for future renumbering.
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