Patent ID: 7804847

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a plurality of media access controllers (MACs), wherein at least two of the plurality of MACs are to transmit at different data rates; a first logic to select at least one of the plurality of MACs to provide a communication channel with a remote network device, wherein the first logic comprises: a control logic to identify a processing capability of the remote network device, wherein the control logic is to select a MAC among the plurality of MACs for use in the communication channel with the remote network device based, at least in part, on the identified processing capability of the remote network device being substantially equal to a transmission rate of the selected MAC; and a second logic to reduce an effective data rate of the communication channel with the remote network device based, at least in part, on the identified processing capability of the remote network device, in support of the selected MAC, if necessary, wherein to reduce the effective data rate, the second logic is to insert one or more idle control elements between at least two frames of substantive content based, at least in part, on the identified processing capability of the remote network device.