1. A method, comprising: monitoring a usage of a plurality of buffers; detecting one of a plurality of pre-selected conditions corresponding to the plurality of buffers; designating one of a plurality of buffer status reporting formats comprising a long buffer status reporting format and a short buffer status reporting format depending on the pre-selected condition detected; and communicating a buffer status report to a network device in accordance with the buffer status reporting format designated, wherein the designating designates the long buffer status reporting format when there is sufficient uplink bandwidth to communicate using the long buffer status reporting format.