Patent ID: 8000339

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a router, a request from a multicast receiver to receive a multicast stream, where the multicast stream has a first bandwidth and is transmitted by a multicast source in a first multicast group, while the multicast receiver has a second bandwidth availability; re-directing, by the router and based on the determination that the first bandwidth is different from the second bandwidth, the request to a content engine, the content engine being a network device offering services including content caching, content hosting, content transcoding and content replication; accessing, using the content engine, the multicast stream from the multicast source; modifying, using the content engine, a parameter of the multicast stream, where the parameter is selected from a group including the first bandwidth of the multicast stream, a first format of the multicast stream and an identifying information of the multicast stream, the first bandwidth being modified to a third bandwidth, the third bandwidth being less than or equal to the second bandwidth, the first format being modified to a second format which is known to the multicast receiver, while the modification of the identifying information resulting in the multicast stream being transmitted in a second multicast group; sending, using the content engine, the modified multicast stream to the second multicast group in the network including the multicast receiver, such that the multicast stream is available in the first multicast group using the first bandwidth and in the second multicast group using the second bandwidth; and sending, using the router and based on reception, upon joining the second multicast group by the router, of the modified multicast stream from the second multicast group, the modified multicast stream to the multicast receiver.