WCCP uses Cisco Content Engines (or other content engines running WCCP) to localize traffic patterns in the network, enabling content requests to be fulfilled locally. Traffic localization reduces transmission costs and download time.

WCCP enables routing platforms to transparently redirect content requests. With transparent redirection, users can fulfill content requests locally without configuring their browsers to use a web proxy. Instead, they can use the target URL to request content, and have their requests automatically redirected to a content engine. The word "transparent" in this case means that the end user does not know that a requested file (such as a web page) came from the content engine instead of from the originally specified server.

A content engine receiving a request attempts to service it from its own local cache. If the requested information is not present, the content engine issues its own request to the originally targeted server to get the required information. A content engine retrieving the requested information forwards it to the requesting client and caches it to fulfill future requests, thus maximizing download performance and substantially reducing transmission costs.

WCCP enables a series of content engines, called a content engine cluster, to provide content to a router or multiple routers. Network administrators can easily scale their content engines to manage heavy traffic loads through these clustering capabilities. Cisco clustering technology enables each cluster member to work in parallel, resulting in linear scalability. Clustering content engines greatly improves the scalability, redundancy, and availability of your caching solution. You can cluster up to 32 content engines to scale to your desired capacity.

WCCP uses either generic routing encapsulation (GRE) or Layer 2 (L2) to redirect or return IP traffic. When WCCP forwards traffic via GRE, the redirected packets are encapsulated within a GRE header. The packets also have a WCCP redirect header. When WCCP forwards traffic using L2, the original MAC header of the IP packet is overwritten and replaced with the MAC header for the WCCP client.

Using L2 as a forwarding method allows direct forwarding to the content engine without further lookup. Layer 2 redirection requires that the router and content engines are directly connected, that is, on the same IP subnetwork.

When WCCP returns traffic via GRE, the returned packets are encapsulated within a GRE header. The destination IP address is the address of the router and the source address is the address of the WCCP client. When WCCP returns traffic via L2, the original IP packet is returned without any added header information. The router to which the packet is returned will recognize the source of the packet and prevent redirection.

The WCCP redirection method does not have to match the return method.

L2 forwarding, return, or redirection are typically used for hardware-accelerated platforms. Depending on your release, L2 forwarding, return, and redirection can also be used for software-switching platforms.

On Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, both the GRE and L2 forward and return methods use the hardware. Therefore, there is no significant performance degradation between them.

For content engines running Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) software, use the wccp custom-web-cache command with the l2-redirect keyword to configure L2 redirection. For content engines running Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software, use the wccp tcp-promiscuous command with the l2-redirect keyword to configure L2 redirection.

Note

Before configuring a GRE tunnel, configure a loopback interface (that is not attached to a VRF) with an IP address so that the internally created tunnel interface is enabled for IPv4 forwarding by unnumbering itself to this dummy loopback interface. You do not need to configure a loopback interface if the system has at least one interface that is not attached to a VRF and that is configured with an IPv4 address.

For information about Cisco ACNS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco ACNS Software Command Reference.

For more information about WAAS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco Wide Area Application Services Command Reference.

The WCCP Mask Assignment feature enables mask assignment as the load-balancing method (instead of the default hash assignment method) for a WCCP service.

For content engines running Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) software, use the wccp custom-web-cache command with the mask-assign keyword to configure mask assignment. For content engines running Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software, use the wccp tcp-promiscuous command with the mask-assign keyword to configure mask assignment.

For information about Cisco ACNS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco ACNS Software Command Reference.

For more information about WAAS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco Wide Area Application Services Command Reference.

The Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers support hash assignment for IPv6 load balance across different content engines, but does not support mask assignment. However, it supports both hash assignment and mask assignment for IPv4.

For content engines running the Cisco Application and Content Networking System (ACNS) software, use the wccp custom-web-cache command with the hash-assign keyword to configure hash assignment. For content engines running Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) software, use the wccp tcp-promiscuous command with the hash-assign keyword to configure hash assignment.

For information about Cisco ACNS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco ACNS Software Command Reference.

For more information about WAAS commands used to configure Cisco Content Engines, see the Cisco Wide Area Application Services Command Reference.

Multiple routers can use WCCPv2 to service a content engine cluster. In WCCPv1, only one router could redirect content requests to a cluster. The figure below illustrates a sample configuration using multiple routers.

Figure 1. Cisco Content Engine Network Configuration Using WCCPv2

The subset of content engines within a cluster and routers connected to the cluster that are running the same service is known as a service group. Available services include TCP and UDP redirection.

In WCCPv1, the content engines were configured with the address of the single router. WCCPv2 requires that each content engine be aware of all the routers in the service group. To specify the addresses of all the routers in a service group, you must choose one of the following methods:

• Unicast—A list of router addresses for each of the routers in the group is configured on each content engine. In this case the address of each router in the group must be explicitly specified for each content engine during configuration.

• Multicast—A single multicast address is configured on each content engine. In the multicast address method, the content engine sends a single-address notification that provides coverage for all routers in the service group. For example, a content engine could indicate that packets should be sent to a multicast address of 224.0.0.100, which would send a multicast packet to all routers in the service group configured for group listening using WCCP (see the ip wccp group-listen or the ipv6 wccp group-listen interface configuration command for details).

The multicast option is easier to configure because you need only specify a single address on each content engine. This option also allows you to add and remove routers from a service group dynamically, without needing to reconfigure the content engines with a different list of addresses each time.

The following sequence of events details how WCCPv2 configuration works:

1. Each content engine is configured with a list of routers.

2. Each content engine announces its presence and a list of all routers with which it has established communications. The routers reply with their view (list) of content engines in the group.

3. When the view is consistent across all content engines in the cluster, one content engine is designated as the lead and sets the policy that the routers need to deploy in redirecting packets.

WCCPv2 allows multiple routers to be attached to a cluster of cache engines. The use of multiple routers in a service group allows for redundancy, interface aggregation, and distribution of the redirection load. WCCPv2 supports up to 32 routers per service group. Each service group is established and maintained independently.

WCCPv2 provides optional authentication that enables you to control which routers and content engines become part of the service group using passwords and the Hashed Message Authentication Code—Message Digest (HMAC MD5) standard. Shared-secret MD5 one-time authentication (set using the ip wccp [password [0 | 7] password] global configuration command) enables messages to be protected against interception, inspection, and replay.

If a content engine is unable to provide a requested object it has cached due to error or overload, the content engine will return the request to the router for onward transmission to the originally specified destination server. WCCPv2 provides a check on packets that determines which requests have been returned from the content engine unserviced. Using this information, the router can then forward the request to the originally targeted server (rather than attempting to resend the request to the content engine cluster). This process provides error handling transparency to clients.

Typical reasons why a content engine would reject packets and initiate the packet return feature include the following:

• Instances when the content engine is overloaded and has no room to service the packets

• Instances when the content engine is filtering for certain conditions that make caching packets counterproductive (for example, when IP authentication has been turned on)

The WCCP VRF Support feature enhances the WCCPv2 protocol by implementing support for virtual routing and forwarding (VRF).

The WCCP VRF Support feature allows service groups to be configured on a per-VRF basis in addition to those defined globally.

Along with the service identifier, the VRF of WCCP protocol packets arriving at the router is used to associate cache-engines with a configured service group.

The same VRF must have the interface on which redirection is applied, the interface which is connected to cache engine, and the interface on which the packet would have left if it had not been redirected.

The use of GRE redirection results in the creation of new tunnel interfaces. You can display these tunnel interfaces by entering the show ipv6 interface brief | include tunnel command:

Device# show ipv6 interface brief | include tunnel
  
Tunnel0                2001::DB8:1::1      YES unset  up                    up      
Tunnel1                2001::DB8:1::1      YES unset  up                    up      
Tunnel2                2001::DB8:1::1      YES unset  up                    up      
Tunnel3                2001::DB8:1::1      YES unset  up                    up      
Device#

The tunnel interfaces are automatically created in order to process outgoing GRE-encapsulated traffic for WCCP. The tunnel interfaces appear when a content engine connects and requests GRE redirection. The tunnel interfaces are not created directly by WCCP, but are created indirectly via a tunnel application programming interface (API). WCCP does not have direct knowledge of the tunnel interfaces, but can redirect packets to them, resulting in the appropriate encapsulation being applied to the packets. After the appropriate encapsulation is applied, the packet is then sent to the content engine.

Note	The tunnel interfaces are not used to connect with incoming WCCP GRE return packets.

One tunnel is created for each service group that is using GRE redirection. One additional tunnel is created to provide an IP address that allows the other tunnel group interfaces to be unnumbered but still enabled for IPv6.

You can confirm the connection between the tunnels and WCCP by entering the show tunnel groups wccp command:

Device# show tunnel groups wccp

WCCP : service group 0 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   intf: Tunnel0, locally sourced
 WCCP : service group 317 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   intf: Tunnel3, locally sourced
 WCCP : service group 318 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   intf: Tunnel2, locally sourced

You can display additional information about each tunnel interface by entering the show tunnel interface interface-number command:

Device# show tunnel interface t0

Tunnel0
   Mode:multi-GRE/IP, Destination UNKNOWN, Source 2001::DB8:1::2
   Application ID 2: WCCP : service group 0 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   Linestate - current up
   Internal linestate - current up, evaluated up

Device# show tunnel interface t1

Tunnel1
   Mode:multi-GRE/IP, Destination UNKNOWN, Source 2001::DB8:1::1
   Application ID 2: unspecified
   Linestate - current up
   Internal linestate - current up, evaluated up

Device# show tunnel interface t2

Tunnel2
   Mode:multi-GRE/IP, Destination UNKNOWN, Source 2001::DB8:1::1
   Application ID 2: WCCP : service group 318 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   Linestate - current up
   Internal linestate - current up, evaluated up

Device# show tunnel interface t3

Tunnel3
   Mode:multi-GRE/IP, Destination UNKNOWN, Source 2001::DB8:1::1
   Application ID 2: WCCP : service group 317 in "Default", ver v2, assgnmnt: hash-table 
   Linestate - current up
   Internal linestate - current up, evaluated up
Device#

Note that the service group number shown in the examples is the internal tunnel representation of the WCCP service group number. Group 0 is the web-cache service. To determine the dynamic services, subtract 256 from the displayed service group number to convert to the WCCP service group number. For interfaces that are used for redirection, the source address shown is the WCCP router ID.

You can display information about the connected content engines and encapsulation, including software packet counters, by entering the show adjacency [tunnel-interface] [encapsulation] [detail] [internal] command:

Device# show adjacency t0  
           
Protocol Interface                 Address
IP       Tunnel0                   2001::DB8:1::1(3)

Device# show adjacency t0 encapsulation 

Protocol Interface                 Address
IPV6     Tunnel1                   2001:DB8:1::11(2)
  Encap length 48
  6000000000002FFF20010DB801000000
  000000000000000120010DB800010000
  00000000000000110000883E00000000
  Provider: TUNNEL
IPV6     Tunnel1                   2001:DB8:1::12(2)
  Encap length 48
  6000000000002FFF20010DB801000000
  000000000000000120010DB800010000
  00000000000000120000883E00000000
  Provider: TUNNEL

Device# show adjacency t0 detail 

Protocol Interface                 Address
IPV6     Tunnel1                   2001:DB8:1::11(2)
                                   0 packets, 0 bytes
                                   epoch 0
                                   sourced in sev-epoch 22
                                   Encap length 48
                                   6000000000002FFF20010DB801000000
                                   000000000000000120010DB800010000
                                   00000000000000110000883E00000000
                                   Tun endpt
                                   Next chain element:
                                    punt

Device# show adjacency t0 internal

Protocol Interface                 Address
IPV6     Tunnel1                   2001:DB8:1::11(2)
                                   0 packets, 0 bytes
                                   epoch 0
                                   sourced in sev-epoch 22
                                   Encap length 48
                                   6000000000002FFF20010DB801000000
                                   000000000000000120010DB800010000
                                   00000000000000110000883E00000000
                                   Tun endpt
                                   Next chain element:
                                    punt
                                    parent oce 0x68C55B00
                                    frame originated locally (Null0)
                                   L3 mtu 0
                                   Flags (0x2808C6)
                                   Fixup disabled
                                   HWIDB/IDB pointers 0x200900DC/0x20090D98
                                   IP redirect disabled
                                   Switching vector: IPv6 midchain adjacency oce
                                   Next-hop cannot be inferred
                                   IP Tunnel stack to 2001:DB8:1::11 in Default (0x0)

Device#

WCCP intercepts IP packets and redirects those packets to a destination other than the destination that is specified in the IP header. Typically the packets are redirected from a web server on the Internet to a web cache that is local to the destination.

Occasionally a web cache cannot manage the redirected packets appropriately and returns the packets unchanged to the originating router. These packets are called bypass packets and are returned to the originating router using either Layer 2 forwarding without encapsulation (L2) or encapsulated in generic routing encapsulation (GRE). The router decapsulates and forwards the packets normally. The VRF associated with the ingress interface (or the global table if there is no VRF associated) is used to route the packet to the destination.

GRE is a tunneling protocol developed by Cisco that encapsulates packet types from a variety of protocols inside IP tunnels, creating a virtual point-to-point link over an IP network.

In applications where packets are intercepted and redirected by a Cisco IOS router to external WCCP client devices, it may be necessary to block the packets for the application when a WCCP client device is not available. This blocking is achieved by configuring a WCCP closed service. When a WCCP service is configured as closed, the packets that fulfill the services, but do not have an active client device, are discarded.

By default, WCCP operates as an open service, wherein communication between clients and servers proceeds normally in the absence of an intermediary device.

The ip wccp service-list or the ipv6 wccp service-list command can be used for both closed-mode and open-mode services. Use the service-list keyword and service-access-list argument to register an application protocol type or port number. Use the mode keyword to select an open or closed service.

When WCCP is enabled for redirection on an ingress interface, the packets are redirected by WCCP and instead egress on an interface other than the destination that is specified in the IP header. The packets are still subject to ACLs configured on the ingress interface. However, redirection can cause the packets to bypass the ACL configured on the original egress interface. Packets that would have been dropped because of the ACL configured on the original egress interface can be sent out on the redirect egress interface, which poses a possible security problem. Enabling the WCCP Outbound ACL check feature ensures that redirected packets are subject to any ACL conditions configured on the original egress interface.

WCCP is a component of Cisco IOS software that redirects traffic with defined characteristics from its original destination to an alternative destination. The typical application of WCCP is to redirect traffic bound for a remote web server to a local web cache to improve response time and optimize network resource usage.

The nature of the selected traffic for redirection is defined by service groups (see figure below) specified on content engines and communicated to routers by using WCCP. The maximum number of service groups allowed across all VRFs is 256.

WCCPv2 supports up to 32 routers per service group. Each service group is established and maintained independently.

WCCPv2 uses service groups based on logical redirection services, deployed for intercepting and redirecting traffic. The standard service is web cache, which intercepts TCP port 80 (HTTP) traffic and redirects that traffic to the content engines. This service is referred to as a well-known service, because the characteristics of the web cache service are known by both the router and content engines. A description of a well-known service is not required beyond a service identification. To specify the standard web cache service, use the ip wccp or the ipv6 wccp command with the web-cache keyword.

Note	More than one service can run on a router at the same time, and routers and content engines can be part of multiple service groups at the same time.

Figure 2. WCCP Service Groups

The dynamic services are defined by the content engines; the content engine instructs the router which protocol or ports to intercept, and how to distribute the traffic. The router itself does not have information on the characteristics of the dynamic service group’s traffic, because this information is provided by the first content engine to join the group. In a dynamic service, up to eight ports can be specified within a single protocol.

Cisco Content Engines, for example, use dynamic service 99 to specify a reverse-proxy service. However, other content engine devices may use this service number for some other service.

An interface may be configured with more than one WCCP service. When more than one WCCP service is configured on an interface, the precedence of a service depends on the relative priority of the service compared to the priority of the other configured services. Each WCCP service has a priority value as part of its definition. When an interface is configured with more than one WCCP service, the precedence of the packets is matched against service groups in priority order.

Note	The priority of a WCCP service group cannot be configured via Cisco IOS software.

With the ip wccp check services all or the ipv6 wccp check services all command, WCCP can be configured to check all configured services for a match and perform redirection for those services if appropriate. The caches to which packets are redirected can be controlled by a redirect ACL and by the service priority.

If no WCCP services are configured with a redirect ACL, the services are considered in priority order until a service is found that matches the IP packet. If no services match the packet, the packet is not redirected. If a service matches the packet and the service has a redirect ACL configured, then the IP packet will be checked against the ACL. If the packet is rejected by the ACL, the packet will not be passed down to lower priority services unless the ip wccp check services all or the ipv6 wccp check services all command is configured. When the ip wccp check services all or the ipv6 wccp check services all command is configured, WCCP will continue to attempt to match the packet against any remaining lower priority services configured on the interface.

To redirect traffic using WCCP to a router running WAAS software that is also configured with NAT, enable the ip nat inside or the ipv6 nat inside command on the WAAS interface. If you are not able to configure the ip nat inside or theipv6 nat inside command on the WAAS interface, disable Cisco Express Forwarding. You must also update the WCCP redirect ACL to include a private address to ensure that pretranslated traffic is redirected.

WCCP uses a router ID in its control messages that a WCCP client can use to uniquely identify a particular WCCP server. The router ID is an IP address and is used as the source address of any WCCP-generated Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) frames. Prior to the WCCP—Configurable Router ID feature, WCCP selected a router ID using an automatic mechanism; the highest reachable IP address on the system (or the highest loopback IP address, if there is one) was used as the WCCP router ID. The highest IP address on the system is not always the best choice as the router ID or as the source address of GRE frames. A change in addressing information on the system may cause the WCCP router ID to change unexpectedly. During this changeover period, WCCP clients briefly advertise the existence of two routers (the old router ID and the new router ID) and GRE frames are sourced from a different address.

The WCCP—Configurable Router ID feature enables you to define a WCCP source interface from which the router ID will be obtained. The IP address of this configured source interface is then used as the preferred WCCP router ID and WCCP GRE source address. When a WCCP router ID is manually configured, the router ID does not change when another IP address is added to the system. The router ID changes only when a new router ID is manually configured using the ip wccp source- interface or the ipv6 wccp source- interface command, or when the address on the manually configured interface is no longer valid.

CPU usage may be very high when WCCP is enabled. The WCCP counters enable a determination of the bypass traffic directly on the router and can indicate whether the cause is high CPU usage due to enablement of WCCP. In some situations, 10 percent bypass traffic may be normal; in other situations, 10 percent may be high. However, any figure above 25 percent should prompt a closer investigation of what is occurring in the web cache.

If the counters suggest that the level of bypass traffic is high, the next step is to examine the bypass counters in the content engine and determine why the content engine is choosing to bypass the traffic. You can log in to the content engine console and use the CLI to investigate further. The counters allow you to determine the percent of traffic being bypassed.

You can use the clear ipv6 wccpservice-id command to remove the IPv6 WCCP statistics (counts) maintained on the router for a particular service.

You can use the clear wccp command to remove all (IPv4 and IPv6) WCCP statistics (counts) maintained on the router for a particular service.

You can use the show ipv6 wccp command to display the IPv6 WCCP global statistics (counts).

You can use the show wccp command to display all (IPv4 and IPv6) WCCP global statistics (counts).