BSS color, also known as BSS coloring, is a method for identifying overlapping basic service sets (OBSSs). BSS coloring was first defined in the 802.11ah-2016 amendment and is now also defined in the 802.11ax draft amendment. The BSS color is a numerical identifier of the BSS. 802.11ax radios are able to differentiate between BSSs using BSS color identifier when other radios transmit on the same channel. If the color is the same, this is considered to be an intra-BSS frame transmission. In other words, the transmitting radio belongs to the same BSS as the receiver. If the detected frame has a different BSS color from its own, then the STA considers that frame as an inter-BSS frame from an overlapping BSS.
BSS color information is communicated at both the PHY layer and the MAC sublayer. In the preamble of an 802.11ax PHY header, the SIG-A field contains a 6-bit BSS color field. This field can identify as many as 63 BSSs.