Frame forwarding for range extension in a wireless network

A wireless relay device compatible with an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 protocol, wherein the wireless relay device comprises:

• a wireless transceiver configured to receive, from a first wireless device, communications data;
• and
• a controller configured to forward the received communications data to a second wireless device based on a fields of a header of the communications data including a basic service set (BSS) color of the first wireless device in the communication data, an association identifier (AID) of the second wireless device in the communication data, and a forwarding indication in the communication data, wherein the forwarding indication is a bit which has one of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value to indicate forwarding is required and the second value to indicate forwarding is not required and to determine whether end-to-end acknowledgement is applied to the communications data.

A method for wireless communications, the method comprising:

• receiving, from a first wireless device, communications data;
• and
• determining to forward the received communications data to a second wireless device based on a basic service set (BSS) color of the first wireless device in the communication data, an association identifier (AID) of the second wireless device in the communication data, and a forwarding indication in the communication data, wherein the forwarding indication is a bit which has one of a first value and a second value, wherein the first value to indicate forwarding is required and the second value to indicate forwarding is not required.