In a data network, a node determines whether to handle data-dependent events using the node's hardware interrupt buffer or instead using an available fallback action. The node classifies each detected event as being one of a plurality of different categories of events and determines, based on the classified category, whether to handle the detected event using the hardware interrupt buffer of the node. Each different event category can be assigned its own scale factor, where the available (i.e., currently unused) capacity of the hardware interrupt buffer is allocated based on those programmed scale factors. If the node determines to handle the detected event using the hardware interrupt buffer, then the node stores a hardware interrupt corresponding to the detected event in the hardware interrupt buffer. Otherwise, the node handles the detected event using a fallback action.