In a method for generating an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol to be included in a PHY data unit for transmission via a communication channel, wherein the OFDM symbol includes a plurality of OFDM tones, information bits to be included in the OFDM symbol are encoded to generate encoded information bits. The encoded information bits are parsed into a plurality of spatial streams. The spatial streams, or space-time streams generated from the spatial streams, are mapped to transmit chains using a plurality of spatial mapping matrices corresponding to the plurality of OFDM tones. Additionally, one of i) reordering OFDM tones before spatial mapping is applied, or ii) reordering OFDM tones after spatial stream mapping is applied and reordering spatial mapping matrices to match the reordered OFDM tones is performed. The OFDM symbol to be included in the PHY data unit is generated.