An exemplary method (600, 700) and apparatus (800) are provided for generating a modified protocol message (414, 423 a, 423b, 424). In some embodiments, a physical layer repeater conducts a repeating operation including receiving a modified protocol signal on a first channel and retransmitting a modified version of the modified protocol signal on a second channel. An exemplary physical layer repeater can include a transceiver (810), a baseband modem (822), and a processor (821) configured to demodulate the modified protocol signal to obtain a first identifier and a first channel identifier and a unique identifier in a modified portion of the signal. The unique identifier and a second channel identifier are retransmitted in a modified version of the signal on the second channel.