In this example, Figures 1 to 3 display the routing tables of R1, R2, and R3. Notice that each router has entries only for directly connected networks and their associated local addresses. None of the routers have any knowledge of any networks beyond their directly connected interfaces.

For example, R1 has no knowledge of networks:

Figure 4 displays a successful ping from R1 to R2. Figure 5 displays an unsuccessful ping to the R3 LAN. This is because R1 does not have an entry in its routing table for the R3 LAN network.

The next hop can be identified by an IP address, exit interface, or both. How the destination is specified creates one of the three following route types: