Preamble puncturing configuration information is encoded in a pad field, and alternatively or additionally, in a Service Field, depending on a transmission bandwidth of a Physical Layer Convergence Protocol (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU). Some implementations also encode one or more parity bits in the pad field or Service field. The PPDU including the preamble puncturing configuration information encodes, in various embodiments, a request to send frame, a clear to send frame, a power save poll frame, or a contention free end frame.