A transceiver device for processing a frame in a wireless local area network, where the frame is one of several frame formats, which include a high throughput frame format. The transceiver device receives a frame having a training sequence, a signal field and a data payload, and processes the training sequence to detect which signal field length of a plurality of signal field lengths was used in the received frame. With the signal field length, the device processes the signal field based upon the detected signal field length to retrieve the data payload processing information.