What technique is commonly used to avoid IP conflicts in network connections?

The technique that is commonly used to avoid IP conflicts in network connections is IP address translation, specifically through the mechanism called Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT allows multiple devices on a private network to share a single public IP address when accessing the internet. By mapping private IP addresses to a public IP address, NAT provides a layer of abstraction that can prevent conflicts that typically arise when devices within the same network inadvertently try to use the same IP address.

When devices are assigned IP addresses dynamically (such as through the DHCP protocol), there is always a risk of address overlap if the same IP address is allocated to two devices. NAT helps mitigate this risk by managing how these private IP addresses communicate over the public internet. In essence, it effectively makes the internal addressing scheme independent from the external network while allowing for access without causing conflicts.

While other techniques, such as network segmentation, dynamic routing, and NAT, also play important roles in managing IP addresses and network design, they do not directly address the issue of avoiding IP conflicts in the same way that IP address translation does. Network segmentation helps in organizing and managing traffic within different segments of a larger network, and dynamic routing is focused on finding the best paths for data transmission.