Systems and methods for setting a carrier-sensing mechanism in a PLC node are disclosed. In a PLC standard, coexistence is achieved by having the nodes detect a common
preamble and backing off by a Coexistence InterFrame Space (cEIFS) time period to help the node to avoid interfering with the other technologies. In one embodiment, a
PHY primitive is sent from the
PHY to the MAC know that there has been a
preamble detection. A two-level indication may be used—one indication after receiving the
preamble and other indication after decoding the entire frame. The MAC sets the carrier-sensing
mechanism based on the preamble detection.