A method comprising: in communications circuitry in a station participating in wireless station-to-station communications in which each of a plurality of stations (102-106, 108-N) shares a wireless communications channel, collecting information wirelessly respectively from transmissions associated with a first communication protocol and from transmissions associated with a second communication protocol; dynamically discerning a current communication environment of the station that characterizes a dynamic relationship of the collected information from the respective transmissions, the collected information being indicative of respective usage of the wireless communication channel by data transmitted via the respective protocols; allocating usage of the channel for communications that use the first communication protocol and for communications that use the second communication protocol, based on the dynamic relationship, by allocating respective amounts of communications or channel usage to each of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol; and wirelessly transmitting (102, 110, 111, 120, 121, 122) sets of data via the first communication protocol and sets of data via the second communication protocol over the channel, based on the allocated usage, wherein wirelessly transmitting the sets of data via the second communication protocol includes: transmitting preamble data and payload data, the payload data being transmitted via the second communication protocol and the preamble data being transmitted via the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol, at one of the plurality of stations configured to communicate via the second communication protocol and to communicate via the first communication protocol, decoding the sets of data wirelessly transmitted via the first communication protocol by using the first communication protocol to decode the preamble to ascertain information about the payload data, and using the ascertained information to decode the payload data. in communications circuitry in a station participating in wireless station-to-station communications in which each of a plurality of stations (102-106, 108-N) shares a wireless communications channel, collecting information wirelessly respectively from transmissions associated with a first communication protocol and from transmissions associated with a second communication protocol; dynamically discerning a current communication environment of the station that characterizes a dynamic relationship of the collected information from the respective transmissions, the collected information being indicative of respective usage of the wireless communication channel by data transmitted via the respective protocols; allocating usage of the channel for communications that use the first communication protocol and for communications that use the second communication protocol, based on the dynamic relationship, by allocating respective amounts of communications or channel usage to each of the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol; and wirelessly transmitting (102, 110, 111, 120, 121, 122) sets of data via the first communication protocol and sets of data via the second communication protocol over the channel, based on the allocated usage, wherein wirelessly transmitting the sets of data via the second communication protocol includes: transmitting preamble data and payload data, the payload data being transmitted via the second communication protocol and the preamble data being transmitted via the first communication protocol and the second communication protocol, at one of the plurality of stations configured to communicate via the second communication protocol and to communicate via the first communication protocol, decoding the sets of data wirelessly transmitted via the first communication protocol by using the first communication protocol to decode the preamble to ascertain information about the payload data, and using the ascertained information to decode the payload data.