Do internal BGP (iBGP) sessions modify the next hop?
A. iBGP sessions preserve the next hop attribute learned from eBGP peers. This is why it is important to have an internal route to the next hop. The BGP route is otherwise unreachable. In order to make sure you can reach the eBGP next hop, include the network that the next hop belongs to in the IGP or issue the next-hop-self neighbor command to force the router to advertise itself, rather than the external peer, as the next hop. Refer to the BGP Next Hop Attribute section of BGP Case Studies for a more detailed explanation.