It depends on which Cache Engine product (CE500 is a series of products) and what software/features you’d be using. (i.e. Cache, E-CDN, I-CDN)
For caching, the performance depends on the traffic mix. HTTP Transparent Proxy Caching (TPC) (typical hit-rate 30-35%) is lower performance than Reverse Proxy Cache (RPC) (hit-rate 80+%). Streaming-media is different again.
For just caching and TPC of HTTP traffic, the performance numbers I received from Cisco are:
CE507: branch-office (T1/E1) -- up to 10mbit/s TPC
CE560+halfSA6: half-DS3 (22mbit/s) TPC
CE590+SA6: DS3 (45mbit/s) TPC
These numbers are significantly higher with RPC, perhaps double. Exact numbers in terms of HTTP Req/sec can be calculated using aggregate mbit/s numbers above and the average http object size of the Internet. Your Cisco rep should be able to draw up specifics for you as well.
