A network switch includes a data port for communicating with a data network, and a statistics counter coupled to the data port for monitoring operational parameters associated with the data port. The statistics counter includes statistics registers therein. A statistics gathering circuit is connected to the statistics counter for reading the statistics registers, and for transmitting the data from the statistics registers to a remote system memory. A method of monitoring port activity in the network switch includes storing port activity data in a statistics register on a network switch, then reading the port activity data with the statistics gathering circuit. The port activity data is transmitted directly to the remote system memory, thereby reconstructing the statistics register in the remote system memory. The remote system memory can then be accessed via a remote CPU to read the reconstructed statistics register.