In a network apparatus, control logic is provided to preemptively issue pause controls to a sender of network traffic of a link to preemptively regulate a rate the sender may send network traffic of the link. In one embodiment, the pause controls are sent periodically, with each including a pause duration. In one embodiment, at least a selected one of the pause duration and the periodicity of preemptive issuance is determined based at least in part on at least a selected one of a working capacity of storage medium allocated to service the link, a network traffic drain rate of the link, and a fill rate of the input line over which the network traffic of the link is received. In one embodiment, the networking apparatus is an optical networking module with the control logic disposed in a multi-protocol networking processor of the module.