"Cable router" has two basic meanings: * Single Cable Router (SCR) - a down-conversion device for the radio data link. It converts

RF signal Radio waves (formerly called Hertzian waves) are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the lowest frequencies and the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies below 300 gigahertz (GHz) and wavelengths g ...

from a

satellite dish A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite. The term most commonly means a dish which receives direct-broadcast satellite televisio ...

TV antenna A television antenna, also called a television aerial (in British English), is an antenna specifically designed for use with a television receiver (TV) to receive terrestrial over-the-air (OTA) broadcast television signals from a television st ...

to the user-defined IF channel. Usually, many SCRs are connected to a single

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...

- each converting to a separate IF channel. The entire system referred to as

Single Cable Distribution Single-cable distribution is a satellite TV technology that enables the delivery of broadcast programming to multiple users over a single coaxial cable, and eliminates the numerous cables required to support consumer electronics devices such as tw ...

. * A piece of

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

equipment located between

cable modem A cable modem is a type of network bridge that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), radio frequency over glass (RFoG) and coaxial cable infrastructure. Cable modems are pri ...

and

LAN Lan or LAN may refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space * ...

, performing functions of the

network router A router is a computer and networking device that forwards data packets between computer networks, including internetworks such as the global Internet. Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet. A router is connec ...

in a modem. Cable routers are usually integrated with the

modem The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...

, frequently incorporating

firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

, proxy, or network gateway functions as well.

See also