Patent ID: 8265074

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: first Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) logic comprising BGP route table data; a first network interface that is configured to communicatively couple to a first autonomous system; data collection logic encoded in one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media for execution and when executed operable to perform: discovering an address prefix of a data collector that is communicatively coupled to second BGP logic of a router within a second autonomous system that is coupled to the first autonomous system directly or indirectly through one or more networks or internetworks, wherein the second autonomous system is independent of the first autonomous system; based on the address prefix, determining a path through the first autonomous system, the one or more networks or internetworks, and the second autonomous system to the data collector based on the BGP route table; requesting the data collector to provide one or more data values relating to performance of network elements of the second autonomous system; receiving and storing the one or more data values; wherein the data collection logic further comprises logic which when executed causes retrieving one or more performance data values from each of one or more local border routers within the first autonomous system.