System and method for controlling access to a wireless medium

Some representative embodiments are directed to controlling access to a wireless medium using''credit'' periods and''free'' periods. During a credit period, credits are initially assigned to the stations and each station is repetitively polled as long as the station has credit remaining and data is available to communicate. During the free periods, stations are polled using a start-time fair queuing algorithm. By dividing the access to the wireless medium in this manner, real time applications may use the credit periods to prevent communication latency from deteriorating application performance. Specifically, the repetitive occurrence of the credit periods and the assignment of credits to the stations ensures that each station will communicate at least at a minimum data rate. Additionally, controlling access to the wireless medium in this manner prevents frame collisions and, thereby, increases network throughput.