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CCNP: Optimizing Converged Networks v5.0 - Lab 4-3 

Copyright 

© 2007, Cisco Systems, Inc 

Lab 4.3 TCP Header Compression 

Learning Objectives 

•  Configure TCP header compression 

•  Verify TCP header compression 

Topology Diagram 

 

Scenario 

In this lab, you will configure TCP header compression across a link and verify it 
by establishing a Telnet session over the link. 

This lab does not use the Pagent TGN application for traffic generation. 

Step 1: Configure Addressing 

Configure all of the physical interfaces shown in the diagram. Set the clock rate 
on the serial link to 64000 and use the no shutdown command to enable all of 
the interface addresses in the topology diagram. 

 
R1(config)# interface serial0/0/0 
R1(config-if)# ip address 172.16.12.1 255.255.255.0 
R1(config-if)# clock rate 64000 
R1(config-if)# no shutdown 
 
R2(config)# interface serial0/0/0 
R2(config-if)# ip address 172.16.12.2 255.255.255.0 
R2(config-if)# no shutdown 

Step 2: Enable Telnet Access on R2 

Enable telnet access on R2 by setting a VTY line password to “cisco”. 

 
R2(config-if)# line vty 0 4 
R2(config-line)# password cisco 

Step 3: Enable TCP Header Compression 

TCP header compression is used to compress TCP headers in a network to 
save bandwidth on a link. However, TCP header compression comes at a cost 
in terms of processor time.  

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TCP header compression must be configured on both ends of the network to 
compress and decompress packets. RTP header compression is configured 
similarly, although it is not shown in this lab.  

Issue the ip tcp header-compression command in interface configuration 
mode to enable TCP header compression. A class-based form of the command 
is used in the modular QoS CLI (MQC), but that information will be covered in 
later labs. Configure this command on the Serial 0/0/0 interfaces on both R1 
and R2. 

 
R1(config)# interface serial0/0/0 
R1(config-if)# ip tcp header-compression 
 
R2(config)# interface serial0/0/0 
R2(config-if)# ip tcp header-compression 

Describe a traffic profile in which TCP header compression can be very useful. 

 

 

 

Step 4: Verify TCP Header Compression 

Issue the show ip tcp header-compression command to view statistics for 
compressed TCP headers. 

 
R1# show ip tcp header-compression  
TCP/IP header compression statistics: 
  Interface Serial0/0/0 (compression on, VJ) 
    Rcvd:    0 total, 0 compressed, 0 errors, 0 status msgs 
             0 dropped, 0 buffer copies, 0 buffer failures 
    Sent:    0 total, 0 compressed, 0 status msgs, 0 not predicted 
             0 bytes saved, 0 bytes sent 
    Connect: 16 rx slots, 16 tx slots,  
             0 misses, 0 collisions, 0 negative cache hits, 16 free contexts 

Generate some TCP traffic by connecting from R1 to R2 via Telnet. 

 
R1# telnet 172.16.12.2 
Trying 172.16.12.2 ... Open 
 
 
User Access Verification 
 
Password: cisco 
R2> exit 
 
[Connection to 172.16.12.2 closed by foreign host] 
R1# 

Verify that the TCP traffic was compressed. 

 

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CCNP: Optimizing Converged Networks v5.0 - Lab 4-3 

Copyright 

© 2007, Cisco Systems, Inc 

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R1# show ip tcp header-compression  
TCP/IP header compression statistics: 
  Interface Serial0/0/0 (compression on, VJ) 
    Rcvd:    17 total, 16 compressed, 0 errors, 0 status msgs 
             0 dropped, 0 buffer copies, 0 buffer failures 
    Sent:    19 total, 18 compressed, 0 status msgs, 0 not predicted 
             622 bytes saved, 181 bytes sent 
             4.43 efficiency improvement factor 
    Connect: 16 rx slots, 16 tx slots,  
             1 misses, 0 collisions, 0 negative cache hits, 16 free contexts 
             94% hit ratio, five minute miss rate 0 misses/sec, 0 max 
 
R2# show ip tcp header-compression  
TCP/IP header compression statistics: 
  Interface Serial0/0/0 (compression on, VJ) 
    Rcvd:    19 total, 18 compressed, 0 errors, 0 status msgs 
             0 dropped, 0 buffer copies, 0 buffer failures 
    Sent:    17 total, 16 compressed, 0 status msgs, 0 not predicted 
             537 bytes saved, 229 bytes sent 
             3.34 efficiency improvement factor 
    Connect: 16 rx slots, 16 tx slots,  
             1 misses, 0 collisions, 0 negative cache hits, 16 free contexts 
             94% hit ratio, five minute miss rate 0 misses/sec, 0 max 

Given the numbers in the output of the commands shown above, identify how 
the efficiency improvement factor is computed: 

 

 

Final Configurations 

R1# show run 

hostname R1 

interface Serial0/0/0 
 ip address 172.16.12.1 255.255.255.0 
 ip tcp header-compression 
 clock rate 64000 
 no shutdown 

end 
 
R2# show run 

hostname R2 

interface Serial0/0/0 
 ip address 172.16.12.2 255.255.255.0 
 ip tcp header-compression 
 no shutdown 

line vty 0 4 
 password cisco 
 login 

end 

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CCNP: Optimizing Converged Networks v5.0 - Lab 4-3 

Copyright 

© 2007, Cisco Systems, Inc