This disclosure provides systems, methods, and devices for wireless communication that support management of network-configured sensing bandwidths in a wireless communication system. In particular aspects, a network configures a sensing bandwidth, and the sensing bandwidth configuration is signaled to a contending node. The contending node (e.g., a UE or a base station) performs a medium sensing procedure (e.g., a listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure) using the signaled configuration of the sensing bandwidth. Aspects of this disclosure provide various techniques for signaling the configuration of the sensing bandwidth to the contending node.