Embodiments of this invention include a network communications stack for a system for communicating data over a network. A media access control (MAC) layer running on a radio processor of the communications stack at least partially processes messages received from a network, i.e., before the message is passed to a host processor. Specifically, the MAC layer includes software configured to analyze a destination address contained in the message, and determine whether the destination address contained in the message matches a destination address programmed in the MAC layer.