System and method for aggregating and reporting network traffic data

A system comprising:

• a service provider network comprising a plurality of communication nodes operable to supply network bandwidth and routing functionality to a plurality of autonomous systems, the service provider network comprising:
• a plurality of network interconnection points operable to route packets the service provider network and the plurality of autonomous systems;
• a plurality of communication nodes operable to route packets within the service provider network, wherein at least some of the plurality of communication nodes comprises a sampling agent operable to generate sampled packet data by sampling packets flowing through each respective communication node;
• one or more collector nodes operable to:
• receive the sampled packet data from the sampling agent;
• obtain routing table information from the collector node associated with the sampling agent;
• use the sampled packet data and the routing table to generate a summary of sampled packets flowing through at least one of the plurality of network interconnection points;
• and
• one or more aggregator nodes operable to:
• receive the summary of sampled packets from the one or more collector nodes;
• use the summary of sampled packets to derive a statistical measure of total traffic flow throughout the service provider network associated with one or more network-related attribute categories;
• and
• apply additional data to the statistical measure of total traffic flow to generate a report of traffic flow through the service provider network.