Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus for wireless communications. The apparatus generally includes a processing system configured to generate a data frame based on a compressed data frame format and to include control information in at least one field of the data frame, wherein the at least one field is not specified in the compressed data frame format and an interface for outputting the data frame for transmission. Another example apparatus generally includes a processing system configured to generate a frame having a first one or more bits indicating whether the frame has a compressed format and a second one or more bits indicating which of one or more fields are absent if the frame has a compressed format and an interface for outputting the frame for transmission.