A Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF) implementation wherein an access point's existing (E)DCF transmit queues are augmented by at least one strict priority HCF transmit queue. The HCF queues are only used to schedule downlink data and CF-Poll transmissions are used for admitted downlink flows and for uplink flows. The 802.1D user priority value is used to select the HCF queue for an admitted flow. The strict priority HCF transmit queues are always serviced first, in priority order before any other (E)DCF transmit queue. The channel is considered busy to (E)DCF transmit queues while the strict priority queues are being serviced. An admissions control mechanism is used to control data flows and prevents the strict priority traffic from starving (E)DCF traffic. A single, simple AP scheduler is used for scheduling both polling times and station wakeup times.