Patent ID: 8700780

Claim:
A method of operating an apparatus, comprising: sending a first request message to a second apparatus, the first request message being associated with first information; receiving a second request message from the second apparatus, the second request message being associated with second information; comparing the first information and the second information; determining whether to send a response to the second apparatus in response to the second request message based on the comparison of the first information and the second information; determining to discard the second request message when determining to abstain from sending the response, wherein the first request message is a first group owner negotiation request including a first group owner negotiation intent, the second request message is a second group owner negotiation request including a second group owner negotiation intent, and the response is a group owner negotiation response, wherein if the response is sent to the second apparatus in response to the second request message, the group owner negotiation response includes the first group owner negotiation intent; and determining to terminate the first group owner negotiation request including the first group owner negotiation intent when determining to send the response to the second apparatus, wherein the response, if sent, includes a group negotiation failure indication when the first group owner negotiation intent and the second group owner negotiation intent both indicate a necessity to be group owner.