A method and system may provide power consumption reduction by a network device. A device on a network and its components each may capable of operating in a low-power state and a high power state. The device may include a host to run an application and a network controller to interface with the network. The network controller may include a host interface logic to interface with host, a micro-engine or other logic to process network maintenance data packets, and a filter to classify data packets. The filter may classify a received data packet having an associated data type and an associated destination by data type and destination. The data packet may be sent to the micro-engine if the data type and destination of the packet may be processed by the micro-engine.