A split access point is disclosed in which an access point controller is provided for management functions of a plurality of wireless clients on a network and one or more media access controls are provided for moving data packets between the network and the wireless clients. One or more radios are provided for communicating with at least one wireless client. In the present invention, one or more of the access point controller, the media access control(s) and the radio(s) are physically separated so as to provide a split wireless access point.