Aspects of the disclosure provide an apparatus having a processing circuit and a transceiver. The processing circuit is configured to generate a frame to have an extended subtype under a control type, configure a media access control (MAC) header of the frame to indicate an extended control frame format, and configure a field of the frame to be an extended subtype field according to the extended control frame format to carry an identification for the extended subtype. The extended subtype is defined in addition to a plurality of subtypes that are identifiable using a subtype field in the frame according to a control frame format. The transceiver is configured to transmit signals to carry the frame.