Two stage egress scheduler for a network device

A network device for network communications is disclosed. The device includes at least one data port interface, the at least one data port interface supporting at least one ingress data port receiving data and at least one egress port transmitting data. The device also includes a memory communicating with the at least one data port interface and a memory management unit including a memory interface for communicating data from the at least one data port interface and the memory. The memory management unit comprises a scheduler and a prefetch scheduler and the memory comprises at least two queues for containing packet data. Additionally, the prefetch scheduler is configured to fetch packet data from a first queue of the at least two queues and placing the packet data on a second queue of the at least two queues and the scheduler is configured to fetch packet data from the second queue and send the packet data to the at least one egress port.