Merging read requests in network device architecture

A network device, comprising:

• a packet memory configured to store packet data corresponding to a multicast (MC) packet received by the network device from a network link;
• a packet processor configured to at least to determine two or more ports via which the MC packet is to be transmitted from the network device;
• and
• a memory controller device coupled to the packet memory, the memory controller device configured to
• buffer received read requests in a read request buffer until the packet memory is available for servicing the read requests, wherein the read request buffer includes a plurality of entries for storing respective indications of client devices from which read requests were received by the memory controller device,
• determine that two or more pending read requests received by the memory controller device are to read packet data from a particular memory location in the packet memory,
• in response to the determining, merge the two or more read requests into a single read request that is stored in a single entry of the pending read request buffer,
• in response to the determining, read the packet data a single time from the particular memory location, and
• provide respective instances of the packet data read from the particular memory location to respective two or more read client devices for subsequent transmission of the packet data via the two or more ports determined by the packet processor.