According to an embodiment, a method, apparatus, and computer readable medium can provide an efficient mechanism to improve data rates of nodes suffering high interference without sacrificing performance of nodes that do not need interference-free channels to communicate. A node can receive two or more RTS packets and identify the RTS packet corresponding to its own cell, as well as RTS packets belonging to interferers. Based on the interference level estimated from the RTS packets, the node can decide if the channel needs to be interference-free for the intended transmission or if the current level of interference is acceptable. According to the embodiment, there can be two or more different types of CTS packets. A node can decide which type of CTS packet to transmit based on the information, signal level, interference level, or a combination therein, of at least two RTS channels, and based on measurements performed on these RTS channels, or other channels.