Patent ID: 7616616

Claim:
In a wireless LAN, including at least one quality of service enabled access point and a plurality of quality of service enabled wireless devices, a method of prioritizing the transmission of at least one priority frame of information over a wireless medium from at least one of the plurality of quality of service enabled wireless devices to the at least one quality of service enabled access point comprising the steps of: the at least one quality of service enabled access point transmitting at least one priority frame of information to the at least one quality of service enabled wireless device in accordance with the contents of a priority label; the at least one quality of service enabled wireless device receiving the at least one priority frame of information from the at least one quality of service enabled access point and transmitting an acknowledgement of the receipt of the at least one priority frame to the at least one quality of service enabled access point after a time interval specified for transmitting the acknowledgement; and the at least one quality of service enabled wireless device transmitting at least one priority frame of information to the at least one quality of service enabled access point after waiting less than the time interval specified for any other wireless communications device associated with the at least one quality of service enabled access point to begin arbitrating for access to the wireless medium after the medium becomes free.