Embodiments described herein provide a method for resource unit signaling with reduced data bits in a wireless local area network. At a wireless transceiver, a data frame may be obtained for transmission. The data frame includes a first preamble portion and a second preamble portion compliant with a wireless local area network communication protocol. When an available resource unit for transmitting the data frame is less than an allowed bandwidth, the first preamble portion and the second preamble portion may be configured with resource unit signaling bits. When the available resource unit is greater than or equal to the allowed bandwidth, the resource unit may be virtually divided into a plurality of channels. At least one of the first preamble portion and the second preamble portion may be configured with a first number of bits representing a number of users spatially multiplexed on a channel from the plurality of channels.