A method and apparatus may provide multi-user parallel channel access (MU-PCA) and/or single-user parallel channel access (SU-PCA) using transmit and/or receive with symmetrical bandwidth, in the downlink (DL), uplink (UL), or combined DL and UL. SU-PCA and MU-PCA may support unequal modulation and coding schemes (MCS) and unequal transmit power. Medium access control (MAC) layer, Physical layer (PHY), and mixed and PHY layer methods and procedures may support UL, DL and combined UL and DL SU-PCA and MU-PCA using transmit and/or receive with symmetrical bandwidth. MU-PCA and/or SU-PCA may also be supported by MAC and PHY layer designs and procedures for downlink, uplink and combined uplink and downlink using transmit/receive with asymmetrical bandwidth.