Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques and apparatus for using a Media Access Control (MAC) address of a station (STA) sending a direct link multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) transmission such that one or more STAs receiving the transmission may interpret a group identifier (ID) indicating a group to which the STAs belong. Using the group ID and the MAC address allows a STA to independently manage its group IDs, independent of an access point (AP) or other STAs in a Basic Service Set (BSS).