I currently own a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem given to me by the ISP, and a Belkin router that is connected via an Ethernet cable to this modem.
When I connect to the router gateway (192.168.2.1), I can view my public (WAN) IP address assigned to me by my ISP.
To which device is this public IP address assigned to? Is it my router or the modem?
I thought for my entire life that it was my router that was identified by the public IP address, since it is the router that is responsible for determining where and how to send data out via its routing algorithms...but I was doing a bit of digging and found on the Wikipedia article on DOCSIS that DOCSIS modems can be managed via an IP address - how is this possible? I can't find any IP address used to access my modem.
It´s depend on the modem configuration. If it´s brigded, then the public ip is on your router. When the modem is not in bridge mode, then they have the public ip and do nat to all devices conected on lan ports.