Systems, methods, and devices for communicating data in a wireless communications network are described herein. In some aspects, a relay may associate with an access point and then clone the access point by transmitting the service set identifier of the access point. An association between a wireless node and a relay may be formed such that the relay provides relay services for wireless network communication between the access point and the wireless node. In some aspects, the relay may generate messages which communicate its available capacity so that downstream nodes may determine from which relays service may be available. In addition, each node may generate messages for upstream relays which communicate the load an association with the node would cause. Through such communication between relays, admission control may be used to minimize associations being dropped because of insufficient available capacity.