This disclosure describes systems, methods, and devices for a Wi-Fi Aware protection mechanism system that may determine a Neighbor Awareness Networking management frame with channel protection information, including a timestamp, for a communication channel, enable a protection mode to communicate with one or more other client devices in a Neighbor Awareness Networking data cluster, and send, to the one or more other client devices in the Neighbor Awareness Networking data cluster, the Neighbor Awareness Networking management frame with the channel protection information.