Critical update signaling for wireless networking

An access point, comprising:

• one or more memories;
• and
• one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are configured to, individually or collectively, perform operations comprising:
• implementing, by the access point, a wireless network, including transmitting beacon frames at periodic intervals, wherein the beacon frames include a traffic indication map (TIM) element;
• and
• in response to an indication of a critical update at the access point:
• incrementing a critical update counter value;
• and
• encoding a TIM element of a beacon frame transmitted after the indication to include a critical update indicator field, the critical update indicator field including data indicating the critical update counter value.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with instructions that, when executed by a processor of an access point, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• implementing, by the access point, a wireless network, including transmitting beacon frames at periodic intervals, wherein the beacon frames include a traffic indication map (TIM) element;
• and
• in response to an indication of a critical update at the access point:
• incrementing a critical update counter value;
• and
• encoding a TIM element of a beacon frame transmitted after the indication to include a critical update indicator field, the critical update indicator field including data indicating the critical update counter value.