The third step in the link-state routing process is that each router builds a link-state packet (LSP) containing the state of each directly connected link.

After a router has established its adjacencies, it can build its LSPs that contain the link-state information about its links. A simplified version of the LSP from R1 displayed in the figure would contain the following:

1. R1; Ethernet network 10.1.0.0/16; Cost 2

2. R1 -> R2; Serial point-to-point network; 10.2.0.0/16; Cost 20

3. R1 -> R3; Serial point-to-point network; 10.3.0.0/16; Cost 5

4. R1 -> R4; Serial point-to-point network; 10.4.0.0/16; Cost 20