The Lightning :navigation component uses a special type of JavaScript object named pageReference to navigate to other Lightning Components or standard views and standard object pages. The Lightning Component must implement a special interface named Lightning :isUrlAddressable to allow itself to be navigated from other components.

A pageReference object structure is shown in the following code snippet. (Note that it is comprised of a type (string type), attributes (object), and state (object). Let's take a look at it:

var pageReference = {
            type: 'standard__objectPage', //standard__component
,standard__knowledgeArticlePage,standard__namedPage,standard__navItemPage,standard__objectPage,standard__recordPage,standard__recordRelationshipPage
            attributes: {
                objectApiName: 'Account',
                actionName: 'list'
            },
            state: {
                filterName: "MyAccounts"
           ...