Efficient scheduling using adaptive packing mechanism for network apparatuses

A network apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of ports configured to send and/or receive data units over one or more networks;
• enqueue logic configured to enqueue the data units in queues, in which the data units await transmission to one or more downstream logic components, wherein each queue of the queues is assigned to one of the ports, the queue holding data units that are to be sent to or were received from the port assigned to the queue;
• dequeue logic configured to dequeue particular data units from the queues in response to instructions from a scheduler, wherein when instructed by the scheduler to dequeue a data unit associated with a particular port, selects a particular queue, of the queues, assigned to the particular port from which to dequeue a particular data unit at the head of the particular queue;
• a data unit transmitter configured to send the particular data units that have been dequeued by the dequeue logic to the one or more downstream logic components;
• the scheduler, configured to determine, at a given time, a given port of the ports to service, and send an instruction to the dequeue logic to dequeue data associated with the given port at the given time, the scheduler configured to service at least a first port of the ports no more frequently than at a service rate, the service rate indicates how frequently a port may be serviced in a clock cycle;
• a rate adjuster configured to, based on sizes of certain data units, of the data units, that are assigned to the first port, temporarily adjust the service rate from a first rate to a second rate.