Medium access protection and bandwidth negotiation in a wireless local area network

A first communication device, comprising:

• a network interface having one or more integrated circuits configured to
• generate a first control frame that
• i) indicates to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a first time period, and
• ii) indicates that the two or more second communication devices are requested to simultaneously transmit respective second control frames to the first communication device via the wireless communication medium, wherein the second control frames are to include information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for a second time period that is a subset of the first time period,
• cause the network interface to transmit the first control frame,
• process respective second control frames received at the first communication device from at least some of the two or more second communication devices, the received second control frames having been transmitted by the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium, wherein the received second control frames include the information indicating to other communication devices that the wireless communication medium is reserved for the second time period,
• generate a multi-user data unit, and
• cause the network interface to transmit the multi-user data unit to the at least some of the two or more second communication devices via the wireless communication medium during the first time period and the second time period.