Patent ID: 7609650

Claim:
A method for collecting data associated with a communications network that includes a plurality of devices, the method comprising: receiving, at a data collection agent of target device, a data collection profile comprising a series of executable commands which are executed by the data collection agent, the data collection profile defining data that is to be collected, a condition under which the data is to be collected, and conditions under which the collected data is to be transmitted, the target device having been selected from among the plurality of devices to receive the data collection profile based on a determination that the target device has at least one characteristic that corresponds to the data collection profile; executing, by the data collection agent, the data collection profile; determining, by the data collection agent at the target device, that a condition defined by the data collection profile has occurred; collecting, by the data collection agent, data at the target device in response to the condition and as specified by the data collection profile; transforming the collected data into a metrics package; and transmitting the metrics package to a remote server according to the conditions defined in the data collection profile.