Wireless device, method, and computer readable media for multi-user request-to-send and clear-to-send and uplink ACK protection in a high efficiency wireless local-area network are disclosed. A high-efficiency (HE) wireless local-area network (HEW) master device may include circuitry configured to generate a multi-user (MU) RTS packet for a plurality of stations (STAs), the RTS packet to include an indication of an address for each of the plurality of STAs. The circuitry may be further configured to transmit the MU-RTS to the plurality STAs and transmit data to one or more of the plurality of STAs in accordance with at least from the following group orthogonal frequency division multi-user (OFDMA) and multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO). The circuitry may be configured to receive acknowledgements from the one or more of the plurality of STAs. A HEW device may set a deferral duration in an uplink transmission to enable a HEW master device to send an acknowledgement.