A wireless station comprises a transmitter. A coding module communicates with the transmitter and generates a first packet including a first field that identifies one of a standard signal processing mode and an extension signal processing mode, a second field that selectively defines a data length based on one of a transmit time period for data of the first packet and the transmit time period plus an extension mode time period for performing the extension signal processing mode, and a third field that selectively comprises one of the data and the data and dummy data.