A communication device in a network may receive a stream of frames from the network, in which each frame includes one or more beacon packets. A communication protocol being used by the network may be identified by tracking a preselected field within a sequence of beacon packets, in which the preselected field varies in a first known manner for a first protocol and in a second known manner for a second protocol. The communication device may then join to the network using the identified communication protocol to transmit and receive data.