Patent ID: 7266298

Claim:
A method, comprising: demultiplexing a multiplexed narrowcast input signal into a first narrowcast signal and a second narrowcast signal; conveying said first narrowcast signal to a first optical combiner; conveying said second narrowcast signal to a second optical combiner; tapping into said first narrowcast signal; monitoring a first characteristic of said first narrowcast signal; tapping into said second narrowcast signal; monitoring a second characteristic of said second narrowcast signal; combining a broadcast signal with the first narrowcast signal using the first optical combiner to give a first combined optical port output; combining said broadcast signal with the second narrowcast signal using the second optical combiner to give a second combined optical port output; adjusting a first power of said first narrowcast signal as a function of said first characteristic to maintain specified power ratio between the first narrowcast signal and the broadcast signal to optimize communication performance when broadcast and narrowcast content is transported with different modulation formats; and adjusting a second power of said second narrowcast signal as a function of said second characteristic to maintain specified power ratio between the second narrowcast signal and the broadcast signal to optimize communication performance when broadcast and narrowcast content is transported with different modulation formats.