A system and method for avoiding collisions between packets transmitted in a wireless network (100). A first node (102, 106 or 107) in the wireless network (100) can transmit a packet to a second node (102, 106 or 107) in the wireless network (100), such that packet includes a header that is transmitted with a higher processing gain than the data, therefore, may be received and processed by a third node (102, 106 or 107. This allows the third node (102, 106 or 107) to detect the transmission of a packet by the first node (102, 106 or 107), which can cause the third node (102, 106 or 107) to avoid transmission of a packet during the transmission by the first node (102, 106 or 107) to avoid collision between the packets. The system and method further enables the nodes (102, 106 or 107) to determine whether they can transmit to another node (102, 106 or 107) based on estimates of interference conditions that can be experienced due to the presence of other nodes (102, 106 or 107).