The first reason will be to simply sit and wait for a box to send a request down the coax cable at which point it will be received by the router and the router will make the request to the headend. This will be needed to just tune in a channel because only the channels that the customers are tuning in with their boxes will be sent down the fiber pipe to your home. Also any PPV requests and VOD requests will be done via the router. These boxes can talk back over the coax cables like the cable companies do but unlike cable companies systems your coax cables terminate at your ONT so that signal can never to sent down the fiber pipe outsite of your ONT. Most systems will have one coax cable feed from the ONT that is run into the attic. That feed would connect to a standard multiswitch that would connect to all the coax cables in all the rooms. This router will be installed outside or inside depending on if the attic has a powerjack or not.