Methods and apparatus relating to robust governing of power management infrastructure in a bridge design are described. In one embodiment, a first agent (such as a processor core) is coupled to a second agent (such as an input/output device) via a bridge. The bridge may or may not enter a different power management state from a current power management state based on a second derivative value. The second derivative value may be in turn determined based on a plurality of first derivative values corresponding to received packets Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.