A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for data communication are provided. The method may include providing a plurality of data channels on a communications link, determining unused bandwidth as a difference between total bandwidth provided by the communications link and bandwidth used by the plurality of data channels, allocating the unused bandwidth to a virtual channel, scheduling the plurality of data channels and the virtual channel in accordance with a time-based multiplexing scheme, and disabling interface circuitry used to couple the transmitter to the communications link when the virtual channel is scheduled. Each of the plurality of data channels may be assigned to a source of data to be transmitted on the communications link.