Methods and systems are disclosed specifying the arrangement and content of the fields in data and management frames, which allow for greater payload efficiency in frame-based communication networks. The content of the fields is changed from the standard 802.11 arrangement to meet of the needs of networks such as Sub-1 GHz networks, including those of the 802.11ah standard, and sensor networks with a large number of stations transmitting at low data rates. In some embodiments, MAC header fields are reduced from standard 802.11 header fields by using only two fields for addressing and eliminating standard fields that are not used in sensor networks.