Techniques for use in controlling data traffic in a wireless local area network (WLAN) which includes at least one access point (AP) are described. In one illustrative example, the terminal is associated with the AP and receives data traffic from a source device via the AP. The terminal identifies whether a processing requirement of the terminal for processing data traffic exceeds a predetermined threshold. In response to such identifying, the terminal produces a control message which includes a source address corresponding to the source device and a destination address corresponding to the terminal, and sends the control message to the AP. The control message is defined to instruct the AP to prohibit transmission of the data traffic originating from the source address and destined to the destination address. In one scenario, the control message further includes a time value indication, for instructing the AP to prohibit transmission of the data traffic only for a time period indicated by the time value indication.