With the introduction of sensitive real-time services, such as voice and video over broadband DSL access, service poviders need to deploy OSS applications in order to track service quality, bandwidth usage and network load. To achieve these goals, OSS applications must be fed with a large volume of statistical and performance data that is generated by the network. A high-performance application, the Alcatel-Lucent 5529 Statistics and Data Collector (SDC) collects data, statistics and performance information from Alcatel-Lucent access network elements. Data are collected, stored, organized and transferred under the control of the OSS application. The Alcatel-Lucent 5529 SDC implements optimized collection mechanisms that protect network elements from processing overload. The Alcatel-Lucent 5529 SDC also provides a simpler, more efficient and cost-effective means for the integration to service assurance OSS.