A station (STA), which supports multiple spatial streams, can, and sometimes does, re-advertise the station as supporting less spatial stream (SS) than the actual number of spatial streams that the device does actually support. In some embodiments, a station's maximum advertised maximum number of spatial streams is proactively reduced based on the station's throughput being below one or more thresholds. In some embodiments, the analysis and level of spatial stream value to be reported in a re-advertisement is determined by the access point. In some other embodiments, the analysis and level of spatial stream value to be reported in a re-advertisement is determined by the station. The access point allocating its limited supported spatial streams among stations is able to more efficiently allocate the air link resources.