Overhead associated with packet communication is reduced by combining or eliminating one or more fields of a packet. In some implementations, a reduction in overhead associated with packets employing security (e.g., IEEE 802.11ah packets) can be achieved by reducing overhead associated with verification-related fields. For example, a packet can include a merged frame check sequence (FCS) and an integrity check value (ICV). In some implementations, an FCS is omitted from a packet.