An apparatus and method for neighbor-aware concurrent transmission media access control (MAC) protocol is provided, which determines whether a plurality of communication connections may be established concurrently in a wireless network, where each node in the network obtains the topology information of its multi-hop neighbors via a neighbor discover module. A cross-layer observation module integrates the physical and virtual carrier sensing, observes the address field of a control frame of a MAC layer in the wireless network, and compares the address field information of the control frame against the topology information obtained by the neighbor discover module to determine whether a plurality of connections may be established for concurrent transmission.