Patent ID: 8279740

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, at an access point, a power save status of a first device configured to communicate in accordance with a first modulation scheme, wherein the first device is a legacy station, and wherein determining the power save status comprises: transmitting a Null frame from the access point to the first device and awaiting a response to the Null frame from the first device; and receiving one of an Acknowledgement frame and a Clear-to-Send frame from the first device in response to the Null frame; and responsive to a determination that the first device is not in a power save state, (i) enabling transmission protection at the access point for the first device; and (ii) transmitting, from the access point, a message requesting that a second device enable transmission protection for a portion of time to enable the first device to transmit, wherein the second device is an enhanced station, and wherein the second device and the access point are configured to communicate in accordance with the first modulation scheme and a second modulation scheme.