Question : What is multiplex?

could any experts tell me waht is multiplex used in network?

Please explain as detail as possible!

Thanks!

Answer : What is multiplex?

To combine multiple signals from possibly disparate sources, in order to transmit them over a single path.

Here is an article on NAT (Network Address Translation which describes how multiplex plays a roll for functionality.

NAT Operation
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The basic purpose of NAT is to multiplex traffic from the internal network and present it to the Internet as if it was coming from a single computer having only one IP address.

The TCP/IP protocols include a multiplexing facility so that any computer can maintain multiple simultaneous connections with a remote computer. It is this multiplexing facility that is the key to single address NAT.

To multiplex several connections to a single destination, client computers label all packets with unique "port numbers". Each IP packet starts with a header containing the source and destination addresses and port numbers:

Source address Source port Destination address Destination port



This combination of numbers completely defines a single TCP/IP connection. The addresses specify the two machines at each end, and the two port numbers ensure that each connection between this pair of machines can be uniquely identified.

Each separate connection is originated from a unique source port number in the client, and all reply packets from the remote server for this connection contain the same number as their destination port, so that the client can relate them back to its correct connection. In this way, for example, it is possible for a web browser to ask a web server for several images at once and to know how to put all the parts of all the responses back together.

A modern NAT gateway must change the Source address on every outgoing packet to be its single public address. It therefore also renumbers the Source Ports to be unique, so that it can keep track of each client connection. The NAT gateway uses a port mapping table to remember how it renumbered the ports for each client's outgoing packets. The port mapping table relates the client's real local IP address and source port plus its translated source port number to a destination address and port. The NAT gateway can therefore reverse the process for returning packets and route them back to the correct clients.

When any remote server responds to an NAT client, incoming packets arriving at the NAT gateway will all have the same Destination address, but the destination Port number will be the unique Source Port number that was assigned by the NAT. The NAT gateway looks in its port mapping table to determine which "real" client address and port number a packet is destined for, and replaces these numbers before passing the packet on to the local client.

This process is completely dynamic. When a packet is received from an internal client, NAT looks for the matching source address and port in the port mapping table. If the entry is not found, a new one is created, and a new mapping port allocated to the client:


Incoming packet received on non-NAT port
Look for source address, port in the mapping table
If found, replace source port with previously allocated mapping port
If not found, allocate a new mapping port
Replace source address with NAT address, source port with mapping port

Packets received on the NAT port undergo a reverse translation process:


Incoming packet received on NAT port
Look up destination port number in port mapping table
If found, replace destination address and port with entries from the mapping table
If not found, the packet is not for us and should be rejected

Each client has an idle time-out associated with it. Whenever new traffic is received for a client, its time-out is reset. When the time-out expires, the client is removed from the table. This ensures that the table is kept to a reasonable size. The length of the time-out varies, but taking into account traffic variations on the Internet should not go below 2-3 minutes. Most NAT implementations can also track TCP clients on a per-connection basis and remove them from the table as soon as the connection is closed. This is not possible for UDP traffic since it is not connection based.

Many higher-level TCP/IP protocols embed client addressing information in the packets. For example, during an "active" FTP transfer the client informs the server of its IP address & port number, and then waits for the server to open a connection to that address. NAT has to monitor these packets and modify them on the fly to replace the client's IP address (which is on the internal network) with the NAT address. Since this changes the length of the packet, the TCP sequence/acknowledge numbers must be modified as well. Most protocols can be supported within the NAT; some protocols, however, may require that the clients themselves are made aware of the NAT and that they participate in the address translation process. [Or the NAT must be protocol-sensitive so that it can monitor or modify the embedded address or port data]

Because the port mapping table relates complete connection information - source and destination address and port numbers - it is possible to validate any or all of this information before passing incoming packets back to the client. This checking helps to provide effective firewall protection against Internet-launched attacks on the private LAN.

Each IP packet also contain checksums that are calculated by the originator. They are recalculated and compared by the recipient to see if the packet has been corrupted in transit. The checksums depend on the contents of the packet. Since the NAT must modify the packet addresses and port numbers, it must also recalculate and replace the checksums. Careful design in the NAT software can ensure that this extra processing has a minimal effect on the gateway's throughput. Before doing so it must check for, and discard, any corrupt packets to avoid converting a bad packet into a good one.

Conclusion
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As the Internet continues to expand at an ever-increasing rate, Network Address Translation offers a fast and effective way to expand secure Internet access into existing and new private networks, without having to wait for a major new IP addressing structure. It offers greater administrative flexibility and performance than the alternative application-level proxies, and is becoming the de facto standard for shared access.