Embodiments described herein provide a method for establishing multi-user operation with duplex medium access control in a wireless local area network. Specifically, a trigger frame is transmitted to one or more client stations in a wireless local area network. In response to transmitting the trigger frame, one or more uplink data packets are received from the one or more client stations. It is then determined whether the one or more client stations support duplex operation. A downlink data packet configured in a multi-user data format is transmitted to at least one destined client station that supports duplex operation while simultaneously receiving the one or more uplink data packets from the one or more client stations.