An apparatus (42, 44, 46) for wireless communication in a network, the apparatus comprising: a wireless communication circuit (54, 56) of a soft-access point, AP, multi-link device, MLD, configured for wirelessly communicating with other wireless stations, STAs, over a basic link and a conditional link in performing a multi-link operation, MLO, on a wireless local area network, WLAN, under an IEEE 802 protocol, and is configured for allowing legacy, non-EHT, devices to setup a link connection on a conditional link; a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN as a STA; a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor perform the steps comprising: wherein said soft-AP MLD has an AP STA for communicating over the basic link and an AP STA for communicating over the conditional link; wherein said soft AP MLD has a station management entity, SME, through which the AP STA on the basic link and the AP STA on the conditional link cooperate with each other to simultaneously process enhanced distributed channel access, EDCA, transmit opportunities, TXOPs, and hybrid coordination function, HCF, controlled channel access, HCCA, TXOPs over the basic link and the conditional link; performing admission control on both the basic link and the conditional link, with traffic stream, TS, setup and negotiation progress in EDCA TXOPs, while scheduling of HCCA TXOPs is based on admitted service period, SP, information obtained during TS setup, in which an HCCA admitted access policy is utilized on both the basic link and conditional link; and wherein the APs affiliated with the same soft AP MLD schedule and allocate synchronized uplink, UL, or downlink, DL, TXOP over both the basic link and the conditional link in the HCCA TXOP period. a wireless communication circuit (54, 56) of a soft-access point, AP, multi-link device, MLD, configured for wirelessly communicating with other wireless stations, STAs, over a basic link and a conditional link in performing a multi-link operation, MLO, on a wireless local area network, WLAN, under an IEEE 802 protocol, and is configured for allowing legacy, non-EHT, devices to setup a link connection on a conditional link; a processor coupled to said wireless communication circuit for operating on the WLAN as a STA; a non-transitory memory storing instructions executable by the processor for communicating with other STAs; and wherein said instructions, when executed by the processor perform the steps comprising: wherein said soft-AP MLD has an AP STA for communicating over the basic link and an AP STA for communicating over the conditional link; wherein said soft AP MLD has a station management entity, SME, through which the AP STA on the basic link and the AP STA on the conditional link cooperate with each other to simultaneously process enhanced distributed channel access, EDCA, transmit opportunities, TXOPs, and hybrid coordination function, HCF, controlled channel access, HCCA, TXOPs over the basic link and the conditional link; performing admission control on both the basic link and the conditional link, with traffic stream, TS, setup and negotiation progress in EDCA TXOPs, while scheduling of HCCA TXOPs is based on admitted service period, SP, information obtained during TS setup, in which an HCCA admitted access policy is utilized on both the basic link and conditional link; and wherein the APs affiliated with the same soft AP MLD schedule and allocate synchronized uplink, UL, or downlink, DL, TXOP over both the basic link and the conditional link in the HCCA TXOP period. wherein said soft-AP MLD has an AP STA for communicating over the basic link and an AP STA for communicating over the conditional link; wherein said soft AP MLD has a station management entity, SME, through which the AP STA on the basic link and the AP STA on the conditional link cooperate with each other to simultaneously process enhanced distributed channel access, EDCA, transmit opportunities, TXOPs, and hybrid coordination function, HCF, controlled channel access, HCCA, TXOPs over the basic link and the conditional link; performing admission control on both the basic link and the conditional link, with traffic stream, TS, setup and negotiation progress in EDCA TXOPs, while scheduling of HCCA TXOPs is based on admitted service period, SP, information obtained during TS setup, in which an HCCA admitted access policy is utilized on both the basic link and conditional link; and wherein the APs affiliated with the same soft AP MLD schedule and allocate synchronized uplink, UL, or downlink, DL, TXOP over both the basic link and the conditional link in the HCCA TXOP period.