Which BGP attribute is used to indicate the next hop for reachability?

• A. Next Hop
• B. Origin
• C. AS Path
• D. Local Preference

Answer: (A)

The Next Hop attribute specifies the next-hop IP address to reach a destination. It tells you which neighboring router to forward traffic to in order to reach the advertised prefix. For routes learned via EBGP, the next hop is the address of the advertising neighbor, while in iBGP the next-hop value is typically preserved from the EBGP-learned route unless you configure next-hop-self to rewrite it. This is essential for actual data forwarding, because without a valid next hop you can’t reach the network, even if the route is known. Other attributes serve different roles: Origin shows how the route was learned, AS Path records the path the route traversed through autonomous systems, and Local Preference guides outbound traffic within your own AS.