An apparatus is provided that includes a network interface to transmit and receive data packets over a network; a memory including one or more buffers; an arithmetic logic unit to perform arithmetic operations for organizing and combining the data packets; and a circuitry to receive, via the network interface, data packets from the network; aggregate, via the arithmetic logic unit, the received data packets in the one or more buffers at a network rate; and transmit, via the network interface, the aggregated data packets to one or more compute nodes in the network, thereby optimizing latency incurred in combining the received data packets and transmitting the aggregated data packets, and hence accelerating a bulk data allreduce operation. One embodiment provides a system and method for performing the allreduce operation. During operation, the system performs the allreduce operation by pacing network operations for enhancing performance of the allreduce operation.