1. A method of performing network address translation, the method comprising: maintaining a record of operation information used by outbound application traffic packets in a flow of a traffic channel for which translation in a network address translation (NAT) device has been initiated, the record including a resource identifier associated with the outbound application traffic packets; disambiguating, using information in the record, whether a resource identifier of a subsequent outbound application traffic packet is associated with the flow of the traffic channel; using information in the record for delivering inbound application traffic packets in the flow of the traffic channel to a particular next destination; and employing an application-specific state machine in the NAT device, the application-specific state machine configured to trace development of an application protocol used by applications to exchange data through the NAT device, in order to observe, record, and use the resource identifier associated with the outbound application traffic packets to determine the particular next destination.