A method of selecting which one of a number of wireless station is to be allocated
a particular transmit opportunity is provided, for example the opportunity to transmit
an air interface unit such as a MAC frame. For each wireless station, a transaction
length is maintained indicating how many transmit opportunities are required to
transmit an upper layer packet to or from the wireless station, and a delay parameter
is also maintained for each wireless station indicative of how long since the wireless
station was last selected. A group of wireless stations to compete for the right
to transmit or receive during the particular transmit opportunity is selected,
and for each of the group of the wireless stations, a transmit priority is computed
which is a function of transaction length and the delay parameter. Finally, the
wireless station in the group of wireless stations with the highest transmit priority
is selected as the wireless station to transmit or receive an air interface unit
during the particular transmit opportunity. Preferably, the transmit priority is
also a function of a wireless station priority for each wireless station.
