diff --git a/build-support/macros-and-definitions.cmake b/build-support/macros-and-definitions.cmake
index 7ad2517a3..1a217188f 100644
--- a/build-support/macros-and-definitions.cmake
+++ b/build-support/macros-and-definitions.cmake
@@ -840,8 +840,7 @@ macro(process_options)
       message(FATAL_ERROR "MPI was not found.")
     else()
       message(STATUS "MPI was found.")
-      add_definitions(-DNS3_MPI)
-      include_directories(${MPI_CXX_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+      target_compile_definitions(MPI::MPI_CXX INTERFACE NS3_MPI)
       set(ENABLE_MPI TRUE)
     endif()
   endif()
diff --git a/doc/manual/source/working-with-cmake.rst b/doc/manual/source/working-with-cmake.rst
index 7acdfab27..e701d0ee8 100644
--- a/doc/manual/source/working-with-cmake.rst
+++ b/doc/manual/source/working-with-cmake.rst
@@ -2855,7 +2855,7 @@ followed by a header configuration:
     else()
       # If it is false, we add necessary C++ definitions (e.g. NS3_MPI)
       message(STATUS "MPI was found.")
-      add_definitions(-DNS3_MPI)
+      target_compile_definitions(MPI::MPI_CXX INTERFACE NS3_MPI)
 
       # Then set ENABLE_MPI to TRUE, which can be used to check
       # if NS3_MPI is enabled AND MPI was found
diff --git a/src/brite/examples/CMakeLists.txt b/src/brite/examples/CMakeLists.txt
index 1440b6f20..8331aefe8 100644
--- a/src/brite/examples/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/brite/examples/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,6 @@ if(${ENABLE_MPI})
       ${libnix-vector-routing}
       ${libapplications}
       ${libmpi}
-      ${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES}
+      MPI::MPI_CXX
   )
 endif()
diff --git a/src/mpi/CMakeLists.txt b/src/mpi/CMakeLists.txt
index 3df1483d2..7a1474731 100644
--- a/src/mpi/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/mpi/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -22,6 +22,6 @@ build_lib(
     model/mpi-receiver.h
     model/parallel-communication-interface.h
   LIBRARIES_TO_LINK ${libnetwork}
-                    ${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES}
+                    MPI::MPI_CXX
   TEST_SOURCES ${example_as_test_suite}
 )
diff --git a/src/mpi/examples/CMakeLists.txt b/src/mpi/examples/CMakeLists.txt
index 7688d4c6a..70c2e21b4 100644
--- a/src/mpi/examples/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/mpi/examples/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-link_libraries(${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES})
-
 set(base_examples
     simple-distributed
     simple-distributed-mpi-comm
diff --git a/src/point-to-point/CMakeLists.txt b/src/point-to-point/CMakeLists.txt
index f5dc99635..58d27334f 100644
--- a/src/point-to-point/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/point-to-point/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ if(${ENABLE_MPI})
   )
   set(mpi_libraries
       ${libmpi}
-      ${MPI_CXX_LIBRARIES}
+      MPI::MPI_CXX
   )
 endif()