Abstract: A sleep protocol is provided for controlling sleep mode in a device having a receive port and a transmit port. A location is established in a map of locations in the device as a sleep/wake control location. When the device receives a command to store a sleep value in the sleep/wake control location, this indicates there is no pending traffic for the receive port. When the device also determines that there is no pending traffic on the transmit port, then the device may enter a low power sleep mode. When the device receives a command to store a wake value in the sleep/wake control location to indicate pending traffic for the receive port, it awakens from sleep mode and responds to the wake command with a reply command to indicate the receive port is ready to receive the pending traffic.