An apparatus for driver power and size selection includes in one embodiment a controller for controlling the enabling and disabling of legs in a legged driver, the legged driver providing only that amount of power necessary to transfer a data packet from its current location to its destination location. A method of forwarding data packets includes determining the distance between a current location of a data packet and the destination location of the data packet, and enabling as many legs of a legged driver as are necessary to power the transfer of the data packet to its destination.