A wireless local area network (WLAN) device (200, FIG. 2) includes a medium access control (MAC) device (204) and a physical (PHY) device (202). The PHY device receives and transmits frames (FIG. 3) over a wireless medium. The MAC device detects (604, FIG. 6) when receipt is completed of a physical layer convergence procedure (PLCP) header (304, FIG. 3) of a received frame. Based on information that the MAC device extracts (606) from the PLCP header, the MAC device predicts (618) header information for a response frame before receipt of the received frame has completed. The PHY device begins transmitting (1110, FIG. 11) the response frame preamble (302, FIG. 3) upon expiration of an interframe space (IFS).