[Contents] [Prev] [Next] [Index] [Report an Error]

Tunnel Mode

The entire original IP packet—payload and header—is encapsulated within another IP payload and a new header is appended to it, as shown in Figure 65. The entire original packet can be encrypted, authenticated, or both. With the Authentication Header (AH) protocol, the AH and new headers are also authenticated. With the Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) protocol, the ESP header can also be authenticated.

Figure 65: Tunnel Modes

Image g030612.gif

In a site-to-site VPN, the source and destination addresses used in the new header are the IP addresses of the outgoing interface (in NAT or Route mode) or the VLAN1 IP address (in Transparent mode); the source and destination addresses of the encapsulated packets are the addresses of the ultimate endpoints of the connection. See Figure 66.

Figure 66: Site-to-Site VPN in Tunnel Mode

Image g030613.gif

In a dial-up VPN, there is no tunnel gateway on the VPN dial-up client end of the tunnel; the tunnel extends directly to the client itself (see Figure 67). In this case, on packets sent from the dial-up client, both the new header and the encapsulated original header have the same IP address: that of the client's computer. See Figure 67.

Note: Some VPN clients such as the NetScreen-Remote allow you to define a virtual inner IP address. In such cases, the virtual inner IP address is the source IP address in the original packet header of traffic originating from the client, and the IP address that the ISP dynamically assigns the dia-lup client is the source IP address in the outer header.

Figure 67: Dial-up VPN in Tunnel Mode

Image g030614.gif


[Contents] [Prev] [Next] [Index] [Report an Error]