Determining, at least in part, one or more respective amounts of buffer memory

A method comprising:

• determining, at least in part, by circuitry, one or more respective amounts of buffer memory to be used, at least in part, to store one or more respective portions of network traffic, the determining, at least in part, of the one or more respective amounts being based at least in part upon one or more respective parameters associated, at least in part, with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, the one or more respective amounts being sufficient to store one or more expected storage bandwidths of the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, the one or more respective parameters reflecting, at least in part, one or more actual characteristics of the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• and
• permitting, at least in part, by the circuitry, one or more respective portions of the buffer memory that correspond, at least in part, to the one or more respective amounts to be selectively powered-on to permit the one or more respective portions of the buffer memory to be used, at least in part, to store the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• wherein the one or more respective parameters comprise one or more network layer protocol bandwidth requirements associated at least in part with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, and one or more respective bandwidth reservations associated at least in part with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• the circuitry to be replicated, at least in part, in each input/output port of the apparatus that is for use on a network link-by-network link basis;
• following host reset and prior to negotiation exchange to determine, at least in part, the one or more respective parameters, the one or more respective portions of the buffer memory to be initialized in a powered-off state.

Computer-readable memory storing one or more instructions that when executed by a machine result in operations comprising:

• determining, at least in part, by circuitry, one or more respective amounts of buffer memory to be used, at least in part, to store one or more respective portions of network traffic, the determining, at least in part, of the one or more respective amounts being based at least in part upon one or more respective parameters associated, at least in part, with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, the one or more respective amounts being sufficient to store one or more expected storage bandwidths of the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, the one or more respective parameters reflecting, at least in part, one or more actual characteristics of the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• and
• permitting, at least in part, by the circuitry, one or more respective portions of the buffer memory that correspond, at least in part, to the one or more respective amounts to be selectively powered-on to permit the one or more respective portions of the buffer memory to be used, at least in part, to store the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• wherein the one or more respective parameters comprise one or more network layer protocol bandwidth requirements associated at least in part with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic, and one or more respective bandwidth reservations associated at least in part with the one or more respective portions of the network traffic;
• the circuitry to be replicated, at least in part, in each input/output port of the apparatus that is for use on a network link-by-network link basis;
• following host reset and prior to negotiation exchange to determine, at least in part, the one or more respective parameters, the one or more respective portions of the buffer memory to be initialized in a powered-off state.