A station, such as a point coordinator (PC) or a non-PC station, in a
basic service set (BSS) in a wireless local area network (WLAN) is
disclosed. The station includes a frame classification entity (FCE), a
frame scheduling entity (FSE) and a QoS management entity (QME). The FCE
is logically located in a logical link control (LLC) layer of the station
and has a classification table containing at least one classifier entry.
Each classifier entry contains a virtual stream identifier (VSID) and a
frame classifier associated with a user session. The FCE receives a data
frame associated with the user session, which can be one of a voice
session, a video session, a data session and a multimedia session. The
data frame contains in-band quality of service (QoS) signaling
information for the user session. The FCE classifies the received data
frame to a selected VSID contained in a classifier entry in the
classification table based on a match between an in-band frame
classification information contained in the received frame and the frame
classifier contained in the classifier entry. The FSE is logically
located in a medium access control (MAC) sublayer of the station and has
a frame scheduling table containing at least one entry. Each entry in the
frame scheduling table contains a VSID and a QoS parameter set associated
with a user session identified by the VSID. The FSE is responsive to the
classified data frame by scheduling a transmission opportunity (TO) for
the classified data frame based on the at least one QoS parameter value
associated with the VSID and characterizing the user session. The QME
interfaces with the FCE and The FSE.