The routing table stores all known network destinations and how to reach them. Every router consults it for each forwarding decision.
Each entry contains:
- Destination network: The IP prefix (e.g., )
- Next hop: The IP address of the next router
- Outgoing interface: Which port to use
- Metric: A cost value for path selection
- Administrative distance: Trustworthiness of the route source
When multiple routes exist to the same destination, the router picks the best one based on these values. View the table with "show ip route" on Cisco devices.