Patent ID: 8767758

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a controller to apply a management frame prioritization protocol to wireless transmission of at least one wireless communication management frame, said management frame prioritization protocol including a plurality of management frame priority classes, each having a priority level, a transmission data rate and a number of retries, wherein the at least one wireless communication management frame includes at least one frame selected from the group consisting of a probe, an authentication frame, an association frame, and a beacon, said controller to negotiate one or more of said management frame priority classes with a destination station, and to prioritize the wireless communication management frame according to the one or more negotiated management frame priority classes; a memory operably coupled to said controller, including a plurality of priority queues corresponding to said plurality of management frame priority classes, wherein said controller is to assign said wireless communication management frame to a priority queue of said queues based on a priority class of said management frame; and a wireless transmitter to transmit an information element (IE) including a field having a predefined value indicating that management frame prioritization is supported, and to transmit said wireless communication management frame from said priority queue according to a priority level, transmission data rate and number of retries of a priority class corresponding to said priority queue.