Data transmission with efficient slot and block formats in a wireless communication system

Techniques for transmitting data and training sequence efficiently using new slot and block formats are described. A transmitter (110) processes (e.g., encodes, interleaves, and partitions) a data block to obtain multiple output blocks. For each output block, the transmitter (110) generates multiple bursts having a training sequence that is shared by these bursts. The transmitter (110) sends the multiple bursts for each output block in multiple time slots, e.g., consecutive time slots in one frame. The multiple bursts for each output block may (1) include one or more short training sequences, (2) omit guard periods between adjacent bursts, (3) include a first tail bit field at the start of the first burst and a second tail bit field at the end of the last burst, (4) include at least one stealing flag field, or (5) have any combination of the above.