Systems and methods disclosed herein receive a network application proxy (NAP)-extended API function call issued by a networking-aware host application. The NAP-extended API function call provides parameter values associated with a host off-loadable packet exchange sequence. Using the parameter values, a NAP module intercepts and responds to one or more incoming network packets associated with the host off-loadable packet exchange sequence while the host processor is in a sleep mode state or is transitioning between sleep mode states.