A system and method are provided for managing diagnostic and performance
information for communications system terminal endpoints (TEs)
communicating over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The TEs communicate
by transmissions that are voice, modem, facsimile, video, data
transmissions, or the like. A Diagnostic Supervisor (DS) transmits
Diagnostic Configuration Messages (DCMs) to the TEs. The TEs generate
Diagnostic Messages (DMs) based on diagnostic information, including
error statistics, voice statistics, facsimile statistics, video
statistics, data statistics, or the like, concerning IP network
transmissions in which the TEs participate. The DCMs instructs the TEs
how to format and when to transmit DMs. The DMs are transmitted by the
TEs to the DS. In a system with more than one DS, the TEs can transmit
DMS to the plural DSs, other TEs or any network devices.