This reports the next-hop address for this CEF path, but per the MIB it is only meaningful for attached-next-hop and recursive-next-hop path types, with its address type determined by the associated cefPrefixType object. Reading this object on a path of any other type, per cefPathType, would return an address that has no operational meaning, so an admin tracing a forwarding path needs to check cefPathType first before trusting this next-hop value as real routing information. For a recursive-next-hop path, this object might show the BGP next-hop address that itself needs further resolution through an IGP route, whereas checking it on a receive-type path would return a value that should not be interpreted as a real next hop.