An interface and related methods for rate pacing in an Ethernet architecture are described herein. In an embodiment, an effective data rate of communication channel with a remote network device is reduced based, at least in part, on an identified processing capability of the remote network device. In one embodiment, to reduce the effective data rate, one or more idle control elements are inserted between at least two frames of substantive content based, at least in part, on the processing capability of the remote network device. Other embodiments are also disclosed.