A system and method are provided for exchanging data at irregular intervals between a sender and a receiver. The sender transmits to the receiver reports containing subject data along with information regarding the next interval at which subject data will be transmitted to the receiver. The receiver may create an expectation window corresponding to the interval information. In a network environment, the level of non-management traffic is monitored, and an average interval value for exchanging management data is selected as a function of the level of non-management traffic. Then, interval values are randomly generated based on the selected average interval value, and the management data is transmitted from the sender to the receiver at irregular intervals corresponding to the interval values.