Method and system for modulating media packets

1. A method for modulating a service conveying stream to be transmitted over a network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a service conveying packet belonging to the service conveying stream; and

determining at least one modulation parameter for the modulation of the service conveying packet in response to at least one network topology characteristic and in response to at least one client related parameter; wherein the network comprises modulators arranged in multiple tiers and wherein the determining comprising checking whether an amount of modulators that modulate a single service conveying stream can be reduced by modulating the single service conveying stream by a higher tier modulator.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining at least one modulation parameter such as to minimize multiple modulations of a single media stream.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining at least one modulation parameter in order to maximize an amount of overall services provided to clients.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining at least one modulation parameter in response to an amount of services to be provided to clients and to a utilization of modulators used to modulate the service conveying packet.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising modulating the service conveying packet in response to the determination.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining is responsive to at least one previously applied modulation parameter.

7. A method for modulating a service conveying stream to be transmitted over a medium, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a service conveying packet belonging to the service conveying stream; and

determining at least one modulation parameter for the modulation of the service conveying packet in response to at least one network topology characteristic and in response to at least one client related parameter; wherein a service conveying packet belongs to a media stream that is modulated by multiple modulators during a modulation sequence and wherein the method further comprises a step of ruling whether to alter at least one modulation parameter during the modulation sequence.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising altering at least one modulation parameter in response to said ruling.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising notifying the client of the alteration and guaranteeing a seamless alteration.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein said ruling is responsive to an amount of alterations occurring during a modulation sequence of at least a portion of the media stream.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the at least one network topology characteristic comprises a mapping between modulators to groups of service that are coupled to said modulators and wherein the at least one client related parameter is a priority of a service group.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the determining of at least one modulation parameter is response to an amount of groups of service that request to receive the service conveying stream.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein determining at least one modulation parameter in response to an amount of clients that request to receive the media stream and in response to a priority of these clients.

14. A system for managing multiple modulators, the system comprising:

multiple input ports, for receiving a service conveying packet belonging to a service conveying stream; and

a management entity, coupled to the multiple modulators, for minimizing multiple modulations of a single media stream by determining at least one modulation parameter for the modulation of the service conveying packet in response to at least one network topology characteristic and in response to at least one client related parameter.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the multiple modulators are arranged in multiple tiers and wherein the management entity is adapted to determine that at least one modulation parameter by checking whether an amount of modulators that modulate a single service conveying stream can be reduced by modulating the single service conveying stream by a higher tier modulator.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the determination comprises selecting at least one modulator to modulate the service conveying packet.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the determination is responsive to an amount of multiple modulations of a single media stream.

18. The system of claim 14 wherein the determination is responsive to an amount of overall services provided to clients.

19. The system of claim 14 wherein determination is responsive to an amount of services to be provided to clients and to a utilization of modulators used to modulate the service conveying packet.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein a modulator out of the multiple modulator modulates the service conveying packet in response to the determination.

21. The system of claim 14 wherein the determination is responsive to at least one previously applied modulation parameter.

22. The system of claim 14 wherein the at least one network topology characteristic comprises a mapping between modulators to groups of service that are coupled to said modulators.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the management entity is configured to determine at least one modulation parameter is response to an amount of groups of service that request to receive the service conveying stream.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the management entity determines at least one modulation parameter in response to an amount of clients that request to receive the media stream.

25. The system of claim 14 further comprising a multi-port switch, coupled to the management entity and to the multiple modulators, for routing media streams to modulators, in response to the determination.

26. A system for managing multiple modulators, the system comprising:

multiple input ports, for receiving a service conveying packet belonging to a service conveying stream; and

a management entity, coupled to the multiple modulators, for determining at least one modulation parameter for the modulation of the service conveying packet in response to at least one network topology characteristic and in response to at least one client related parameter; wherein a service conveying packet belongs to a media stream that is modulated by multiple modulators during a modulation sequence and wherein the management entity rules whether to alter at least one modulation parameter during the modulation sequence.

27. The system of claim 26 wherein at least one modulator alters at least one modulation parameter in response to said ruling.

28. The system of claim 11 wherein the system notifies the client of the alteration.

29. The system of claim 26 wherein said ruling is responsive to an amount of alterations occurring during a modulation sequence of at least a portion of the media stream.

30. A system for managing multiple modulators, the system comprising:

multiple input ports, for receiving media streams; and

a management entity, coupled to the multiple modulators, for selecting a modulator of the multiple modulators to modulate a media packet that belongs to a media stream, in response to at least one client related parameter, said client being coupled to the modulator;

wherein the at least one client related parameter is an estimated alterations that are required for providing a media stream to a client.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the system monitors client requests to receive media streams.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the management entity updates at least one client related parameter in response to said monitoring.

33. The system of claim 30 wherein the system generates client viewing patterns in response to said update.

34. The system of claim 30 wherein the modulators are QAM modulators.

35. The system of claim 30 wherein the modulators are RF modulators.