Abstract: Disclosed are methods and system to dynamically monitor a number of switching ports of a networking device. In one embodiment, a system is disclosed to monitor network traffic comprising a switch port monitoring device comprising a real-time processor, a packet data processor, a packet queue and a storage device. The system also comprises one or more switches coupled to the switch port monitoring device, where at least one of the switches comprising a switch processor, a switch fabric, one or more ingress/egress ports coupled to the switch fabric, and one or more uplink ports coupling the switch packet to the packet queue of the switch port monitoring device.