Service level agreement (SLA) based monitoring and configuration of a path for transmission of data is achieved by identifying an SLA associated with the data and determining transmission requirements associated with the SLA. A status of a network element in the path, such as data occupancy of a data queue included in the network element, may be determined and used to select one of a high bandwidth portion or a low bandwidth portion of the pathway. The occupancy of the queue may be used to estimate a transmission delay, and the estimated transmission delay is used to select between the high bandwidth portion and the low bandwidth portion. The data may be directed to the selected bandwidth portion by changing a quality of service (QoS) value or other attribute associated with the data.