Logic may enable communication between stations in the presence of interference. Logic may communicate with the station in the presence of interference, the interference from a communication between other stations comprising a first network allocation vector (NAV) reminder, by entering a mode in which a Control Physical layer (PHY) modulation and coding scheme (MCS) is enabled and a Single Carrier PHY MCS is disabled. Logic may enable the Single Carrier PHY MCS in response to receipt of a clear-to-send (CTS) or an expiration of a CTS timeout. Logic may determine an active time remainder during a Contention-based access period. Logic may determine a time to access a channel in response to receipt of the Denial to Send and based upon a predefined, maximum inactivity time. Logic may remain beamformed while the apparatus is in the Control PHY mode.