Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for utilizing a physical layer (PHY) header comprising an identifier for an access point (AP) or a Basic Service Set (BSS). A station (STA) that is assigned an order in a sequential response sequence may count only frames with PHY headers that contain the correct identifier. A STA may terminate its sequential access procedure when it receives a frame with a PHY header that specifies a different identifier for the AP or BSS that assigned the sequence. In this manner, the STA may prevent partly synchronizing to an overlapping network and avoid accessing the wireless medium at the wrong time.