A computer apparatus comprises first Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) logic comprising BGP route table data; a network interface to communicatively couple to a first autonomous system; data collection logic in computer-readable storage media 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, wherein the second autonomous system is independent of the first autonomous system; 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.